The Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department serves 22 district criminal courts and 15 county criminal courts at law with supervision and services for approximately 38,000 felony and misdemeanor offenders. The Department provides pre-sentence investigations and assessment services for the courts. The Judges contract with the county for payroll and purchasing services, and the county, by statute, provides facilities, equipment and utilities. There are six regional office sites, five neighborhood reporting locations, five residential treatment programs and additional offices in the criminal courthouse. Currently, the Department has approximately 875 employees under the oversight of the Director who is appointed by the judges.

We are committed to promoting a positive atmosphere and enhancing community safety by providing all Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department clients opportunities for change so that they can successfully complete community supervision and become productive, law-abiding citizens.

The Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department (HCCSCD) has a variety of programs to assist its clients in successfully completing supervision. One group of programs, Client Support Services (CSS), is the current feature on our web page to familiarize the community with what is available to those on community supervision.

The Client Support Services (CSS) division of the Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department utilizes available resources to provide support services to clients. Located at the main office of 49 San Jacinto, the CSS is comprised of the following divisions: the Assessment Unit, STAR Drug Court, Treatment Alternatives to Incarceration Program (TAIP), the Community Services Restitution Unit and a Programs section.  Services through the various units are provided from 7:30 am and 4:00 pm, and bi-lingual (English and Spanish) staff is available in each division.  Effort is made to accommodate any client with special needs or barriers.

The Assessment Unit has grown since its inception in May 2004.   The unit’s motto is to stay unbiased, neutral, and objective (UNO) when interviewing clients.  New officers have been added who have a wealth of specialized knowledge in areas such as domestic violence and mental health. Staff is trained on assessment instruments that help determine the needs of clients and their risk of re-offending. 

The STAR Drug Court has been in existence since September 2003.  Case Managers are trained to conduct substance abuse evaluations on prospective clients to determine eligibility and to make referrals and placements into treatment, including into residential programs.  They supervise clients and connect them to the services they need to support abstinence from substance use and to ultimately successfully complete community supervision.    

The Community Service Restitution (CSR) Unit coordinates the completion of community service hours that clients have been ordered by the courts to complete.  Efforts are currently being made to increase the roster of agencies where service hours can be completed, in order to provide more flexibility for clients.  In an effort to reduce the number of clients having to travel downtown, the unit encourages staff at the regional sites to use electronic reassignments.  The CSR Unit will also have a direct impact on the success of the Clean and Green Project spearheaded by Commissioner Elyse Lanier.  Mrs. Lanier recently invited judges to a reception that highlighted the project and emphasized their involvement through court stipulation of workers’ placement to the agency. 

The Programs and TAIP units have moved their classes and assessments out to the community.  In addition to conducting alcohol/drug evaluations in the downtown office, staff travels to one of the four regions (North, South, East and West) on a weekly basis to conduct assessments on site. The Programs section has also moved the location of its classes to the various department reporting sites.  Classes include: Texas Drug Offender Education Program, Driving While Intoxication (DWI), Life Skills, Drug Dealers Awareness Program and Weapons Education Safety Training.

The vision of the Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department is to provide opportunities for clients to make the changes necessary for them to become law abiding citizens.  The CSS Unit supplies numerous programs to assist in reaching this goal.

The Best of Texas Award was presented in Commissioner’s Court in November 2007 from the Center for Digital Government for outstanding information technology innovations and contributions.  Staff from HCCSCD worked with other county agencies in the development of a Community Service Hours Reporting system for HCCSCD clients. 

The project involved cooperative work between staff from the Precinct 3 Commissioner, the HCCSCD Community Service and Information Services units, and Harris County Justice Information Management System (JIMS) and Information Technology Center (ITC).  A system was created for validating community service hours worked by HCCSCD clients and involves the interface of the various departmental technology systems.