Services

Intensive Pretrial Release (IPTR). Recommends high-risk offenders for supervised release that do not qualify for either Pretrial Release or RWS.

Presentence Investigation (PSI). A full life history of the offender, now encompassing the LSI-R, which is completed following the offender's plea of guilty or being found guilty. It is used by the Judge in sentencing proceedings and is also used by the probation/parole officer, state institutions, and the Parole Board to assist in developing case plans and in formulating treatment programs.

Community Service Sentencing. This program was begun in 1978 as a means to have offenders give back to the community through unpaid work in the community which can be performed as a condition of probation or as part of a determinate Court sentence.

Informal Probation. Designed for low-risk, minimum supervision offenders that are given Court ordered conditions, specific to the offender, to be completed in a designated time period while on probation.

Probation. Supervision of convicted offenders from the Court utilizing community resources, research-based and evidence-based practices and processes such as "Best Practices", "What Works", and the LSI-R.

Parole. Supervision of convicted offenders following granting of parole by the State Board of Parole from a state institution, half-way house, or OWI prison, utilizing community resources, research-based and evidence-based practices and processes such as "Best Practices", "What Works", and the LSI-R.

Intensive Supervision Program (ISP). The offender's needs and risk level are determined through the Level of Service Inventory, Revised (LSI-R), Jesness, and the Iowa Risk Assessment Form. Officers provide intense supervision of a smaller case load of high-risk convicted offenders holding them accountable through intensively supervising, monitoring, facilitating, and educating the offender in an attempt to restructure their thinking processes and to increase public safety and reduce recidivism.

Special Needs. Refers to those individuals who have been diagnosed with a major mental illness, dual diagnosis disorders (mental health and substance abuse problems), brain injury or mental retardation. Officers assist through numerous referrals and interventions while holding the offender accountable.

Domestic Abuse. Officer duties are similar to ISP, but focus more on collaboration with community agencies providing interventions. This group meets monthly via the Domestic Abuse Coordinating Council.

Intensive Supervision Drug Court. Started as a pilot program, the unit's goal is to address, with a holistic approach, offender substance abuse behavior problems leading to criminal behavior.

Youthful Offender Program. This program is offered at the discretion of the Department and Polk County Attorney's Office to qualified juvenile offenders waived to adult court on felony charges and young adults under the age of twenty-two who are charged with a first time felony. Staff assess, refer and monitor offenders who are sent to community-based substance abuse programs.

Sex Offender Program. (Des Moines Metro Area/Polk County, Dallas, Jasper, Madison, and Marion counties). The department contracts with Counseling and Assessment Services to provide psychological evaluations, testing, and treatment. Services include psychological/psychosexual evaluations, hormonal intervention therapy, treatment groups, individual counseling, penile plythesmography testing (PPG), and consultation services to Department staff.

Creston Sex Offender Program. The Department contracts with Crossroads Mental Health Center to provide sex offenders in Creston and surrounding area with primary group treatment, family counseling, psychiatric services on an as-needed basis, and methods to manage sex offenders' relapse issues.

Men's Residential Facilties. These facilities are located on the south side of Des Moines on the historic Ft. Des Moines military grounds. Building 68 houses the eighty (80) "probation" offenders who were sentence by the Court to the facility as a condition of probation. Building 70 houses one hundred twenty (120) offenders placed on work release by the Board of Parole. Building 65/66 houses a sixty-seven (67) bed treatment facility for OWI inmates sentenced by the Court. This program is licensed by the Iowa Department of Health, Division of Substance Abuse.

Women's Residential Facility. Located at 1917 Hickman Road in Des Moines, this forty-eight bed facility houses female offenders sentenced as a condition of probation by the Court, on state work release, as OWI Third Offense inmates, or as Federal pretrial or jail transfers. One wing of the facility allows eight (8) women to have up to twelve (12) children reside with them, while the women complete their sentence. This portion of the program is designed to allow the mother and child a chance to live together in a safe environment designed to enhance the mother's parenting and other life skills.

Fugitive Unit (Warrant Team). All of this unit's officers are Certified Law Enforcement Officers graduated from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. They are the only Department staff certified and allowed to carry weapons. Three Polk County Sheriff's Officers and a Polk County Detention Officer are part of the Fugitive Unit. The units' duties include apprehension of fugitives including those from other jurisdictions and agencies, surveillance of probation, parole, and residential facility offenders, training and instruction of fellow staff members, and assisting with the Sheriff's Work Alternative Program.

Support Service Center. This unit, created to assist the Department by incorporating "Best Practices", "What Works", and effective correctional interventions into the daily Department operation, delivers research-based offender programming, staff guidance in the areas of case management and effective correctional interventions, and assists unit supervisors with quality assurance on assessment tools, case planning, and supervision according to risk, need and responsivity.

Electronic Monitoring. The Department monitors the statewide electronic monitoring program for all eight Judicial District Departments of Correctional Services using voice verification, radio frequency, and global positioning satellite units.

Offender Educational Groups. The Department provides a number of cognitive-based intervention classes intended to help facilitate change within the offender, such as "CALM", Moving On", and Thinking For A Change" which are instructed by Department staff.