Cowley County Community Corrections operates the Community Corrections Act programs in the 19th Judicial District. Cowley County is located in south central Kansas on the Oklahoma border and within one-hour drive of Wichita. Cowley County encompasses 1,126 square miles with a total population of 36,311 per the 2010 census. Winfield, the County Seat, is the second largest city within the county with a total population of 12,301 and Arkansas City is the largest city with a population of 12,415. The 19th Judicial District operates two separate Courts, one in Winfield and one in Arkansas City.
Cowley County Community Corrections provides three basic components for the Courts’ consideration at the time of sentencing. The first is intermediate level sanctioning and supervision options in sentencing felony offenders to the Adult Intensive Supervision Program (AISP) versus prison sentences. The second is the Cowley County Community Corrections Day Reporting Program, which is an SRS certified, level one outpatient drug and alcohol treatment program, which provides cognitive based treatment to all offenders needing outpatient treatment.
The third is the Cowley County Drug Court Program which was implemented at the end of FY09. In collaboration with the District Court, all offenders convicted under the provisions of SB123 and placed on Community Corrections are assigned to the Drug Court Program. Certain non-SB123 offenders are potentially considered for assignment to the Drug Court if the sentencing Judge refers them for evaluation to the program. Collaboration and partnerships with local providers has enhanced service delivery and increased accountability of our offenders. We feel the implementation of this program has greatly increased the chances of our drug related offenders to be successful as well as increased public safety.
This plan is targeted to assist those clients that defined by the LSI-R as being at a high or very high risk on probation or to re-offend. In Cowley County, the areas of greatest risk are alcohol and drug related problems, leisure/recreation and education and employment problems.
In March 08’, we began providing an Education and Employment learning lab within our office to assist offenders with education and employment needs. We are currently in collaboration with Cowley College to provide a G.E.D./high school diploma completion program in our office for all our offenders and State Parole offenders needing to complete their high school diploma or obtain their G.E.D. We have a computer lab set up for offenders to do job searching on-line as well as the ability to work on resumes and job applications.
Since November 10, 2008, Cowley County Community Corrections and State Parole partnered together to begin offering Cognitive Outreach Groups (COG), which is firmly based on the National Institute of Corrections Thinking for a Change Program. The goals in implementing the program are to: increase the number of clients who successfully complete probation and parole, reduce recidivism and improve clients’ abilities to take control of their thoughts, behaviors and lives.
Community Corrections Staff
Cowley County Community Corrections staff consists of the Director, Deputy Director, 3 Intensive Supervision Officers (ISO), Drug and Alcohol Counselor and Administrative Secretary. Community Corrections employees work with staff from the District Court, County Attorney’s Office, Court Services, local law enforcement, Cowley County Mental Health and Counseling Center, State Parole, Cowley County College, other community corrections agencies, and other service providers regularly in the course of their duties.
