PRETRIAL SERVICES ADVISORY
COMMITTEE-IPCSA
SEPTEMBER 9, 2005 MEETING
MINUTES
ISU-NORMAL, IL
Present: Keith Cooprider
(Lake); Marty Offutt-Gruber (Kane); Tanya Whitehead (Kane); Gary Nelsen
(Macon); Anita Maxey (Macon); Sharjeel Rizvi (Kankakee).
Ø
Meeting called
to order. Minutes from last meeting were inadvertently dated July 24th;
corrected to read the actual meeting date of June 24th, 2005.
Minutes then read and approved by the Committee.
Ø
E-Mail
Issues: Nancy Cooper’s (Madison County) email address is incorrect on the
Pretrial Services Advisory Committee List (dated 6/5/05); it is missing a
“j.” The correct address is
njcooper@co.madison.il.us. Anita will make the correction on the member
list. Also, we need to keep in mind that Cook County
Probation/Pretrial Services does not have access to the
Internet; therefore Tom Quinn, Assistant Chief Probation Officer, who
manages Cook County’s Pretrial Services Program, is limited to mail and/or
fax transmittals.
Ø
Newsletter
Update and Status: Tanya presented a prototype of the Pretrial Services
Newsletter, formally titled P.S.B.S. For the most part, the
Newsletter was approved but it was suggested that we have a subtitle to the
effect of P.S.B.S.: For Pretrial Practitioners and Anyone Interested in
the Profession of Pretrial Services. In addition, Tanya has asked that
committee members write up a brief description of their pretrial program and
your pretrial officer’s names for the first edition and contribute any
unique and humorous stories about life in pretrial services. Tanya would
like this information by September 30, 2005. Tanya plans on producing the
first edition and, given the “okay” of her Deputy Director, will mail the
first edition to all Illinois counties. The projected mailing date is
October 19th, 2005. Since eventually production and distribution
costs will have to be addressed, Anita recommended that we re-examine the
method of delivery of the Newsletter, suggesting perhaps an electronic
method (e.g., E-Mail; IPCSA Website). This was tabled for further
discussion at a later date. Marty pointed out that in the Pretrial Services
Act in the Illinois Criminal Law and Procedure Statutes (725 ILCS 185),
Section 185/33 discusses costs, payment, and reimbursement for a variety of
pretrial-related activities, including equipment, postage, printing, etc..
Marty was well-versed in “balancing” the needs of pretrial funding with the
statutory budget mandated by the legislature.
Ø
Illinois Pretrial Services Mission Statement.
Marty submitted a draft of
an Illinois Pretrial Services Mission Statement, both in paragraph form and
bullet form. The group consensus was to adopt the paragraph style. Some
minor modifications were suggested and Marty will forward to the group her
final draft proposal. Any further suggestions or recommendations can be
forward to Marty; finalized version will be forthcoming.
Ø
Pretrial
Survey and Illinois PTS Program Directory. Keith presented a draft of the
pretrial survey. The survey questions focus on collecting data on pretrial
program characteristics in Illinois and training needs for Illinois pretrial
practitioners. There are a total of eighteen questions. For the most part,
the survey questions were informally approved as is, but recommendations
were made in terms of finalizing the project. They are as follows: (1) a
cover letter with a “Please respond by [date]” should be drafted; (2) the
survey will be mailed with a return envelope and addressed to the “director”
who has overall managerial responsibility of a given probation or court
services department with a statement to the effect that the survey please be
forward to the appropriate pretrial supervisor or assistant director for
completion; another option suggested was to distribute the survey at this
year’s Fall Conference; (3) target population will be all currently active
pretrial programs as well as any department that is currently in the process
of putting together a pretrial program; Anita will put together a list; (4)
Anita will check with IPCSA regarding funding (paper, Xeroxing, postage,
etc); (5) using the mail, to save costs it was suggested that we double-side
the survey—three pages instead of five if we double-side; (6) it was
suggested that we ask the survey respondents to describe their day-to-day
operations in a short paragraph to be included in the survey; (7) follow-up
by phone may be necessary. Keith will draft the cover letter and add the
“describe your program” paragraph to the survey.
Ø
Next Meeting:
9:00-11:30am, Wednesday, October 19th, 2005, IPCSA Fall
Conference, Decatur Il (Macon County).
