Providing an alternative to jail time by implementing best-practices case management for the court system is the  role of the DeKalb County Court Services Department.  Director Michael Venditti along with Supervisors Audra Puelo and Goeff Livengood explained their responsibilities at this week’s Rotary Meeting.  Venditti said his department provides probation services for adults and juveniles, monitors community restitution sentences, and documents pre-trial information to assist the courts, State’s Attorney’s Office, and Public Defenders Office.  He went through a list of various processes and interventions used to determine what services will help accomplish a positive behavior change   Offenders are evaluated for program participation and then are tracked for successful completion of their court ordered service.

 

Puelo oversees adult court services.  She said probation sentences usually extend for 12 to 24 months.  There are strict rules to follow.  These include no firearms possession, not leaving the state unless granted a travel pass, and treatments for things like drug dependency.  Her area of responsibilities also involves sex offender restrictions, treatment plans, and data base maintenance.

 

Livengood oversees juvenile court services.  He said there is significant interaction with the juvenile’s home setting when working out a sentencing plan.  A program for first-time offenders called ECAP helps juveniles considered minimal risks avoid a formal court process and has a 95% success rate according to Livengood.  His duties also include documenting sentences for community restitution.  These sentences can range from 10 to 480 hours.  Livengood said in 2022 these community service hours translated into $237,484 worth of  assistance to local projects.

Tickets are $25.00 each and we have a total of 600 tickets to sell. Three winning tickets for the following amounts will be drawn during the Rotary Holiday Party on 12/20/2023:

November 28, 1962 – American Emmy, Grammy, and Peabody Award-winning comedian and writer Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) is born in New York City.

 

November 30, 1835 – American author Samuel Clemons (Mark Twain) is born in Florida, Missouri.

 

November 30, 1874 – Renowned British politician and British Prime Minister during World War II, Sir Winston Churchill, is born in Oxfordshire, England.

 

December 1, 1761 – Marie Tussaud, founder of Madame Tussaud’s wax museum, is born in Strasbourg, France.

November 26, 1922 – English archaeologist Howard Carter opens the virtually intact tomb of boy king Tutankhamun.  This would go on to become the most famous discovery of a pharaoh’s tomb, and make King Tut perhaps the most famous pharaoh. 

 

December 1, 1955 – Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama after she refuses to go to the back of a municipal bus in the era of segregation ushering in the modern civil rights movement.

 

December 1, 1990 – England was connected to mainland Europe for the first time since the Ice Age as workers digging the railway tunnel under the English Channel broke through the last layer of rock.

 

December 2, 1942 – Physicists led by Enrico Fermi carried out the first successful nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago.