Jones Begins Duties Monday, Andrew Steps Down As Director
WARSAW — Kurt Jones will begin his duties as the Kosciusko Community Corrections Director Monday, April 18, and Barry Andrew, who has served as director the past few years, will step down. Andrew will continue to serve as the Kosciusko County Alcohol And Drug Program Director and the Drug Court Coordinator. The announcement was made Monday, April 11, at the quarterly meeting of the Kosciusko Community Corrections Advisory Board meeting.
Jones, who was not able to be present for the meeting, will be introduced at Thursday evening’s Kosciusko County Council meeting. He is currently employed with the Indiana Department of Corrections at the level 1, or minimum security, Edinburgh Correctional Facility.
Jones has a combined experience of almost 3 1/2 years with the DOC. As a correctional case worker, he oversees two housing units of offenders, responsible for facilitating needs of the offenders relating to their current commitments and completes initial interviews to help create case management plans. Jones is also responsible for identifying programs which will help the offenders identify areas of concern to assist in not re-offending.
Jones is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.
Advisory board members voted to have Andrew continue as a lay person on the Community Corrections Committee, pending approval by the county commissioners, if the approval is required.
Andrew announced the search continues for a full time home detention officer. Jones will be asked to look at the resumes on file. “We hope to get a home detention officer on board as soon as possible. It will not stop the program,” he stated.
There was discussion between members if Jones and the home detention officer should also serve as probation officers. It was stated Jones would need to take a new officer orientation within six months and a test within a year. It was noted the appointment of Jones and a home detention officer as probation officers would not preclude the Indiana Department of Corrections Community Corrections grant received to pay for the positions.
Members also discussed at length if those people doing field work should be required to carry a firearm. Through the discussion it was learned some counties do have those in the field carrying firearms, while locally probation officers have a police officer present.
It was decided to have Jones not only tweak the current program, but to bring a plan back to the advisory board regarding the carrying of firearms by field officers, contact surrounding counties to take a look at their programs, and provide plans for the Community Transition Program. The creation of the local program will be an utmost priority. Circuit Court Judge Michael Reed stated the county has already been reprimanded for not spending the grand funds quick enough.
The advisory board did call a special meeting for 6 p.m. May 23, to hopefully review a tweaked Community Corrections program that will include field visit procedures and the community transition program.
These meetings are open to the public.