Jul 08

Pretrial Day Reporting Center

Posted to Community Services News on July 8, 2022 at 3:12 PM by Jessica Harris

Pretrial Services

Pretrial Day Reporting Center

Pretrial Services Day Reporting Center provides a safe, secure, and structured environment focused on improving participant outcomes through various methods, including behavior modification and educational programming, mentoring and coaching by staff members, and therapeutic counseling through outside community partners. The staff continuously network with community agencies that provide employment assistance through programing, skills training, and direct hire. New participants complete an assessment that identifies a supervision plan garnered to their individual needs and goals while ensuring all court ordered requirements are also being addressed. Additionally, the Day Reporting Center offers clients assistance with transportation or assists clients with housing needs.

The Day Reporting Center currently offers the following groups.
Criminal Thinking Errors
Substance Use
Anger Management
Moral Reconation Therapy
Batterers Intervention

Participants are vigorously supervised and the staff monitors their progress and reports to the courts. Clients who complete the program leave with a better understanding of the consequences for their actions and are able to make better decisions under pressure. They also possess meaningful contacts and/or training that will provide them with an opportunity for economic growth. This holistic approach continues from the moment the courts refer the client to the Day Reporting Center until the case is disposed or the unit is relieved of supervision.

Tag(s): Pretrial, December2021

Jul 08

Welcome Administrator Kelly

Posted to Community Services News on July 8, 2022 at 11:36 AM by Jessica Harris

Office of Justice Initiatives

Welcome Administrator Kelly

In August 2021, Attorney Pamela Williams Kelly was appointed as Administrator for the Office of Justice Initiatives and serves as the Criminal Justice Coordinator. Kelly manages a staff that is responsible for over $5 million in state and federal funds that are allocated for youth diversion, youth mental health, opioid addiction recovery and family resources. In her role as Criminal Justice Coordinator, Kelly works to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the local criminal justice system.

For over eleven years, Attorney Kelly practiced law locally in General Sessions, Circuit and Chancery Courts. She also represented clients in federal immigration court and immigration detention facilities from Tennessee to Texas. She was a 2020 finalist for the Memphis Bar Journal’s Best of the Bar Award, received the 2013 Celebrate Pro Bono Award from the Memphis Bar Association, and the 2021 Empowerment of Women and Girls Award from the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women.

Attorney Kelly, a native of Mississippi, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Mississippi State University and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from The Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at The University of Memphis.

Pamela Williams Kelly, Esq. Administrator, Office of Justice Initiatives and Criminal Justice Coordinator

Tag(s): OJI, December2021

Jul 08

No Justice, No Peace

Posted to Community Services News on July 8, 2022 at 11:29 AM by Jessica Harris

Office of Justice Initiatives

No Justice, No Peace

“No Justice, No Peace!” We have heard those words throughout history. Those words are the rallying cry for all of us when the definition of justice itself—righteousness, equitableness or even moral rightness—seems to be an illusion. But the Office of Justice Initiatives (OJI) was developed to actively remind each of us that justice is not a foreign concept, nor is justice only for those in the criminal justice system. Instead, the Community Intervention branch of the OJI was created to redirect hearts, minds and actions. And we do this with five distinct programs: Comprehensive Opioid Addiction Program (treatment for opioid addiction), JAG Grants (federal funds to support justice measures at the local government level), Juvenile Evening Reporting Centers (alternative to youth detention), Shelby County Connects (youth mental health) and the Youth & Family Resource Center (youth diversion program and family resources). OJI staff understands that their work is not just about balancing budgets or attending meetings. Their work is greater than that. It is restoring faith in the pursuit of justice because justice is not lost. Their work is to remind our citizens that peace is closer than they think. It is just beyond the horizon within OJI Community Intervention programming.

Stephanie Williams