Lake County probation featured at training workshops

Representatives from the Lake County probation department will present two workshops at the upcoming training institute for the American Probation and Parole Association.

The group’s 36th annual conference is set for July 24-27 in Chicago.

Local probation officers and representatives of the College of Lake County will present “The Answer Is … Group Reporting.” They will discuss how collaboration of a probation department and a community college can allow large numbers of low- and moderate-risk offenders to be supervised in a college setting.

Group reporting for those types of offenders frees probation officers to concentrate on individual supervision of high-risk offenders.

The presenters will be probation officers Beverly Brooks, who created the county’s original group reporting project in 2002, and Rudy Martin, supervisor of the DUI group reporting project.

Nicole Totoni, CLC volunteer coordinator, will also discuss the recruitment and training of volunteers for group reporting projects.

Probation officers Jeff Ross and Frank Morelli will conduct a second workshop covering the county’s successful “Thinking for a Change” program that teaches offenders strategies for proper decision making.

The two have supervised the Lake County program for 10 years, and Thinking for a Change received a National Association of Counties Achievement Award in 2005 and the Institute for Legal Policy Studies Innovative Leadership Award in 2010.