Impact Georgia, 2009 June

June 2009 Newsletter

GDC'S ANNUAL AWARDS CEREMONY -- SETTING THE STANDARD

FAITH AND CHARACTER BASED ADVISORY BOARD MEETING

The Department held its fifth annual awards ceremony

at Tift College's Rutland Student Center on May 27th.

This year's theme was "Setting the Standard." The

Department honored staff, partners, and volunteers

for their dedication as well as for going above and

beyond the call of duty. Commissioner Owens,

Assistant Commissioner Schofield and Board

of Corrections Chairman Robert Jones

presented awards to the recipients. Mr.

Jim Lientz, Chief Operating Officer for

the State and Representative Jim

Cole were guest speakers, and also

assisted with the presentation of

In this Issue:

awards.

Pictured left to right (top row): Presentation of Colors, Commissioner Owens presenting guest speakers.
Pictured left to right (bottom row): Photo of audience, Warden Oubre of Phillips State Prison receives Facility Fitness Award. The Facility also received the Facility of the Year Award.
GDC HOSTS FAMILY DAY

Annual Awards Ceremony F&CB Advisory Board Family Day Consolidated Service Desk Senior Leadership Off-Site Education Conference Pulaski SP Honored Cognitive Behavioral Unit Customer Service Athens DRC Ceremony POST Certification Unit

IN MILLEDGEVILLE

The Department hosted its bi-annual Family Day in Milledgeville on Friday, May 15, with 54 registered family members in attendance. Family Day provides family and loved ones the opportunity to voice their concerns, and the Department takes all suggestions into consideration in order to better manage offenders and improve operations.

The Faith and Character Based Advisory Board members met to discuss the board's mission and the Department's future Faith and CharacterBased initiatives. The next meeting will be held in 6 months.

NEW CONSOLIDATED SERVICE DESK
The state's first consolidated, enterprise service desk will launch on Monday, June 1, giving you a single phone number, 1-877-GTA-3233 (1-877-482-3233), for IT and telecommunications support needs.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP OFF-SITE

Upcoming Events:

The executive management team convened recently at Tift Campus in Forsyth, for its bi-annual two-day work session. The team discussed the Department's goals and objectives, budget issues, and the upcoming move to Forsyth. Dr. Cathryn Futral, a Professor at Tift College for more than 30 years, attended as a guest speaker, and was accompanied by two former Tift students, Mrs. Carey Russell (President of Tift Alumni), and Ms. Elise Phillips.
Pictures right to left: Management team's group photo, the team's tour of Ponder Hall, Dr. Cathryn Futral, Carey Russell, and Elise Phillips, and Commissioner Owens speaking with the guest speaker.

June 7-10 - GPWA Summer Convention
June 24 - Teambuilding - Fox Theatre Tour
June 25 - Sergeants Academy Graduation
June 30 - GDC Quarterly Awards Ceremony

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS WITH GDC EDUCATION
GDC held its fifth annual education conference May 14-15, with 114 educators enrolled. The purpose of this conference is to help improve the instruction of classes within GDC facilities.
There are currently 150 part-time general education teachers in the facilities and centers and nine special education teachers. They teach the Literacy/ Remedial Reading (L/RR) courses, Adult Basic Education (ABE) courses, and GED Preparation (GED Prep) courses. These three sequential courses lead to the GED examination. Offenders are placed in the correct course according to the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) results.
The Department's offenders have a 71% GED passing rate--higher than the national and state averages. Approximately 2,000 GEDs are earned by offenders through examination annually.

Did You Know?

PULASKI STATE PRISON HONORED AS HEARTBOUND FACILITY OF THE YEAR
Pulaski State Prison was honored recently at an appreciation ceremony for Georgia Prison Chaplains. Heartbound Ministries, sponsors of the annual event, presented the facility with the Heartbound Facility of the Year award. Andrea Shelton of Heart-
bound Ministries said the award was created three years ago to recognize facilities that are making a positive difference in the lives of inmates and staff.
Heartbound Ministries supports prison Chaplains and ministers to offenders in an effort to bring about a change in their lives. Pulaski State Prison was the third GDC facility to receive the Heartbound Facility of the Year award.

In our facilities, approximately 13,000 offenders enroll in an academic education class annually.
THE COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL UNIT'S MORAL RECONATION THERAPY (MRT) STUDY
The Cognitive Behavioral Unit of Risk Reduction Services recently released the results of a four-year study, which began in 2003. The Lifeskills for State and Local Prisoners Grant was received by the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) from the United States Department of Education to study the effects Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT) had on reducing recidivism and to implement best practices to be used throughout the United States. MRT is one of the Cognitive Behavioral Programs used throughout several GDC facilities. The study included six Transitional Centers (LaGrange, Albany, Coastal, Metro, Macon, and Augusta) and more than 2,600 offenders.
Results showed that MRT had a 10% reduction in recidivism for those offenders who completed seven steps or higher in the program. The Department has trained more than 300 staff to facilitate the program. There are more than 100 active groups facilitating the program across the state.

Commissioner Brian Owens
Public Affairs: Joan Heath, Director Sharmelle Brooks Kristen Stancil
Contact: 404-656-9772 GDCinfo@dcor.state.ga.us www.dcor.state.ga.us

A WORD FROM OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE CHAMPION

Exceptional customer service is the lifeblood of any successful organization. Exceptional customer service is all about honoring your commitment to your customers and sending them away happy enough to pass along positive feedback about their experience with you. The essence of exceptional customer service is all about relationship building with customers. How do you go about forming such a relationship? This is accomplished by remembering the one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; "You will be judged by what you do, not what you say."

Cathy Smith, GDC Customer Service Champion

ATHENS DAY REPORTING CENTER GRADUATION CEREMONY
The Athens Day Reporting Center, which opened in January 2008, held its first commencement ceremony on May 19th at the Ebenezer Baptist Church West. A total of nine participants graduated from the six to nine month program.

POST CERTIFICATION UNIT
Located inside the Georgia Corrections Academy is the POST Certification Unit. This Unit reviews POST applications for correctional officers and probation officers submitted by GDC Personnel, County Prisons and Private Prisons.
This Unit is also responsible for entering all change of status forms (C-11's), scanning C-12's, certifying all graduates of Basic Correctional Officer Training and Basic Probation Officer Training. They answers all POST questions regarding correctional and probation officers, and enter training requests for officers scheduled to attend mandated training.
In 2008, the POST Certification Unit reviewed approximately 1,400 applications, certified approximately 2,100 correctional and probation officers, ran over 700 background checks for county and private prisons, scanned over 47,000 training entries and entered well over 30,000 training records in PeopleSoft. Anna Holland, Wendy Mazer, and Cathy Hall make up the POST Certification Unit.

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