Special Services

Drug Court

The District offers two drug court programs in Ottumwa and Ft, Madison, respectively.

Drug Court is a multi-phase intensive treatment program designed to supervise non-violent offenders with substance abuse issues through participation in a comprehensive, judicially monitored program offering drug treatment and rehabilitation services.

The treatment teams include a probation and parole officer, a substance abuse counselor, a prosecuting attorney, a defense attorney, and a presiding judge. Most recently, a federally funded initiative allowed the programs to expand to include mental health services for offenders with a dual diagnoses.

The mission of Drug Court is to enhance public safety through a collaborative effort to more efficiently work with non-violent substance abuse offenders, thereby reducing recidivism and effecting positive long-term change for offenders, their families, and our communities.

The goals include:

• Helping participants remain substance free by providing support, treatment and skills to make positive choices;

• Reducing the number of chemically dependent offenders going to prison; and

• Increasing the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment by providing intensive supportive supervision.

For more information about the programs and admission criteria, follow the links below.

In Ottumwa:

PPO III Kristina Eckert

Ottumwa Residential Facility

245 Osage Drive

Ottumwa, IA 52501

Ph. (641)472-4242 x 210

Ottumwa Drug Court Handbook

In Ft. Madison:

Drug Court Officer Justin Leffler

811 Avenue G

Ft. Madison, IA 52627

Ph. (641) 472-4242 Ext. 483

Ft. Madison Drug Court Handbook

Thirty-Two Hour Sheet

High Risk Unit- HRU

To meet the Department's mission in protecting the public, staff and offenders, the Eighth Judicial District created a High Risk Unit. This unit functions as a team and provides field surveillance and other related functions on sex offenders, methamphetamine offenders, and other offenders assessed at a high risk to recidivate.

Officers work throughout the 14-county District, primarily during evening and late-night hours, and provide surveillance, electronic monitoring, drug and alcohol testing, warrant service, and other related tasks on referred offenders.

HRU officers are uniformed, armed, and otherwise equipped as law enforcement officers. In addition, officers are assigned visibly marked and fully equipped law enforcement vehicles. The HRU works closely with all law enforcement agencies.

For more information, contact:

Assistant Director Vince Remmark

1805 W, Jefferson, Suite 1

Fairfield, IA 52556

Ph. (641) 472-4242 Ext. 587

HRU Home Visit Notice

Iowa Domestic Abuse Program

The Iowa Domestic Abuse Program promotes accountability while encouraging offenders to stop using the common tactics of power and control against their partners. Those behaviors include intimidation, physical and sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse, minimization, denial, blame, collusion, justification, economic abuse, and using the children against their partners.

To achieve this, offenders are taught to use non-violent behaviors that promote respect, responsible parenting, economic partnership, honesty and accountability, trust and support, and negotiation through a 24-week curriculum.

The top priority is to make offenders understand that battering is a choice--- a choice that destroys relationships, families, and even lives. While it would be naïve to suggest that all batterers benefit from the program, we know firsthand that many offenders have been positively impacted by the program.

Much of the success can be directly linked to trained and dedicated facilitators and those offenders who understand the harm they have caused. Although the vast majority of offenders are ordered to the program by the courts, some enroll in the program voluntarily.

For more information, contact IDAP Coordinator:

Jaime Baker
214 North 4th Suite 2A
Burlington , IA 52601
Ph. (641) 472-4242 Ext. 333

Mental Health Supervision Program

Accessing mental health services in rural Iowa has always presented a challenge due to the lack of available mental health professionals and funding. Once involved with the criminal justice system, mentally ill offenders were too often simply referred to understaffed and overwhelmed local mental health providers, or left to their own devices. Without the ability to first address those mental health needs, offenders were often ill-equipped to adhere to the conditions of supervision and were often revoked from probation and placed in either a residential facility or prison.

In short, there was no comprehensive effort in which community corrections officers and mental health providers work together to create a cohesive action plan to address both the mental health and supervision needs of offenders.

However, with the advent of the District’s Mental Supervision Program in 2011, the needs of mentally ill offenders are being addressed through an 18-24 month diversion program based on the treatment court model. The staff includes a probation and parole officer, a staff psychologist, a defense attorney, a prosecuting attorney, and a presiding judge.

This one-stop approach combines intensive supervision, treatment, and judicial oversight that greatly benefits offenders struggling with mental illness. This program not only addresses the short-term obligations of the criminal justice system, but also focuses on stabilizing and assisting offenders in creating a productive, crime-free future.

For more information about the program, contact:

PPO Supervisor Kurt Rosenberg

Ph. (641) 472-4242 Ext. 519

PPO III Dakota Simmons

Ph. (641) 472-4242 Ext. 213

Ottumwa Residential Facility

245 Osage Dr.

Ottumwa, IA 52501

Reentry Program

Ninety-six percent of Iowa inmates will leave prison. Research indicates that involving offenders in a comprehensive process that addresses substance abuse and mental health needs, education and employment training, other support services and responsive case management, could help break the cycle of criminality and provide the opportunity for offenders to lead productive lives upon their return.

We are all stakeholders in our desire to make our communities safer. By building new collaborations and strengthening existing community partnerships, the Iowa Department of Corrections is working to develop a statewide reentry system to reduce recidivism and the number of those victimized by crime.

For more information, follow the links below to contact a Reentry Coordinator:

Reentry Coordinator Lindsay Epperson (Ottumwa)

Ph. (641) 472-4242 Ext. 257

Reentry Coordinator (Burlington)

Ph. (642) 472-4242 Ext. 342

A Guidebook for Friends and Family of Offenders

Una guia ristica para la familia y los amigos de delincuentes

Restorative Justice

The Eighth District is committed to serving crime victims, communities and offenders by offering a host of victim and restorative justice services and programming described below.

Community Boards: Local citizens from all walks of life comprise Community Accountability Boards. They serve voluntarily to provide the community’s perspective in addressing crime. The purpose of the boards is to meet with offenders who are struggling to successfully complete parole or probation. While board members provide support to offenders, they also hold offenders accountable for their crimes. Community Accountability Boards typically meet on a monthly basis and receive referrals from the District’s probation officers.

Victim Advocacy: The Iowa Eighth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services maintains an open-door policy in providing services to crime victims. Given the complexity of the criminal justice system, it can be difficult to anticipate all problems that crime victims might experience. Our policy is simple: tell us about the problem you are experiencing and we will try our best to resolve the situation. In the past we have assisted victims with victim registration and notification, restitution issues, blocking unwanted phone calls from inmates, referrals to state and community resources, and accessing the criminal justice system.

Victim Impact Panels: Some crime victims choose to actively participate in the criminal justice system by telling their stories directly to offenders in a safe environment. This is offered in conjunction with the Sex Offender Program, or on an individual basis. For some victims, and survivors of sexual abuse, the opportunity to tell their stories can be one way in which they begin to regain control of their lives; others are interested in preventing future victimizations by sharing their experiences with offenders who do not fully understand or accept the impact of their criminal behaviors. Serving on a victim impact panels is not for everyone. Victims must be fully aware of the risks and benefits of participation. If interested, contact our victim-offender services coordinator.

Victim-Offender Intervention Sessions: Upon request, victims are provided the opportunity to meet face-to-face with offenders to discuss how their lives have been impacted by crime. Victims often have questions that only offenders can answer— questions such as “Why me?” For offenders the meetings provide an opportunity for face-to-face accountability, to understand the real impact of crime on their victims and to, perhaps, make amends. These meetings are conducted in the presence of a trained mediator who spends hours preparing the parties to meet. Victim-offender intervention sessions are not for everyone and should be entered into with caution and a full understanding of the inherent risks and benefits.

For more information, follow the links below or contact the Victim-Offender Services Coordinator:

Executive Officer Linda Norton

Ph. (641) 472-4242 Ext. 554

Community Boards Brochure

Crime Victim Services

Sex Offender Treatment Program

Offenders are ordered to the sex offender program if they are currently under supervision for a sexual offense, have a criminal sexual offense history, or are convicted of a nonsexual offense but information about the crime indicates a sexual offense also occurred.

The program is designed to help sex offenders, through therapeutic and educational treatment opportunities, gain control over deviant behavior patterns while being ever vigilant to protect the community by establishing internal and external controls.

Cognitive-behavioral treatment delivered in the group format is universally recognized as the treatment modality of choice for sex offenders. The department uses the group format and a curriculum that includes sections on victim awareness and how sexual assault impacts the lives of survivors, cognitive restructuring, managing deviant sexual arousal, relapse prevention, sexuality, relationship skills, and maintenance.

Offenders placed in this treatment program are also held to a contract that restricts and monitors their behavior. Supervision can include electronic monitoring as well as software programs that monitor internet access. The use of polygraph testing of sex offenders has emerged in the last several years as one of the best methods to keep the offenders in check so that they don’t revert to old cycles, or patterns.

Even with programs and supervision strategies in place, it is important to underscore that the treatment outcome for sexual offenders is not considered to be a cure of a mental disorder, but rather the development of control of a deviant behavioral pattern.

The District maintains two sex offender treatment programs based in Burlington and Ottumwa that serve 14 counties in southeast Iowa. The programs are supervised by specialized probation and parole officers who are certified through the Iowa Board for the Treatment of Sex Abusers (IBTSA).

For more information, contact program staff:

In Burlington:

PPO III Ronnie Ashton Ph. (641) 472-4242 Ext. 327

PPO II Dalton Henry Ph. (319) 472-4242 Ext. 310

PPO III Derek Schwandt Ph. (641) 472-4242 Ext. 349

Burlington Probation and Parole Office

214 N. 4th Street

Peterson Building, Suite 2A

Burlington, IA 52601

In Fairfield:

PPO III Jennifer Brereton (641) 472-4242 Ext 589

In Ottumwa: