Nebraska State Probation System Reporting Centers

The Reporting Centers provide a continuum of services for clients under one roof. We work with a variety of individuals from State Probation, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services and Federal Probation. By pooling state and county resources, the centers can provide a means by which clients’ time can be structured towards educational opportunities, employment assistance, and a variety of classes and groups that are either court-ordered or offered because there is a need. 

 

Services are evidence-based and tailored to meet the needs of the local community. Reporting Centers assist in engaging clients in rehabilitative services while simultaneously providing enhanced supervision through probation.

 

Reporting Centers also serve as community resources for individuals who live in the area or are related to clients on probation offering a variety of services to meet their unique needs. These services range from AA meetings to Employment classes to access to computer labs and a variety of other services that meet the community’s demands.

 

History of Nebraska’s Probation Reporting Centers

Beginning in 2006, seven Reporting Centers were opened serving the District and County Court’s higher risk offenders in the following counties: Sarpy, Otoe, Lancaster, Douglas, Dakota, Buffalo, and Dawson. In 2012, a Reporting Center was opened in Gering. In 2014, three additional Reporting Centers were opened in Columbus (Platte County), Norfolk (Madison County) and Grand Island (Hall County) Nebraska for a total of eleven Reporting Centers throughout the state. In 2015/2016, five additional Reporting Centers were opened in Lincoln (Lancaster County), Omaha (Douglas County), North Platte (Lincoln County), Beatrice (Gage County), and Hastings (Adams County) Nebraska bringing the total number of Reporting Centers in the state to sixteen.

 

Centers provide the following:

Core program components include: Pre-treatment, Relapse Group, Employment and Educational/Life skills classes and cognitive groups to assist clients in behavior change.

Centers also offer services that are unique to the Judicial Districts where they are located. There are collectively over 150 different services within the sixteen Reporting Centers. These services include such things as: parenting, anger management, financial management, relapse prevention, mental health counseling, victim impact classes, domestic violence classes, trauma groups, cognitive restructuring classes and employment programs.
Other services such as drug testing and ancillary assistance (transportation, leisure activities, clothing closets, computer labs) are also available.

 

Design of Nebraska’s Probation Reporting Centers

Staff allocated to a Reporting Center include: 1 Coordinator, 1 Assistant Probation Officer, 1 clerical support staff and depending on the location 1-2 Drug Technicians to assist in the daily operations and staffing of the centers that are open late into the evening and on weekends.

Reporting Centers have become integral to the success of the Specialized Substance Abuse Supervision program (SSAS) and to the reduction in recidivism (SSAS Brochure).

 

Reporting centers are funded by a combination of general fund (staff), cash fund (services) and county dollars (operations).

Between 2011 and 2012, Reporting Centers recorded over 50,000 visits to their programs and services and exceeded that number in 2013 and 2014 with over 51,000 visits recorded within the Reporting Centers.

 

An average of 54% of clients accessing services fall into the “high-risk to recidivate” classification:

Specialized Substance Abuse Services 11%
Community Based Intervention (CBI) 27%
Problem Solving Courts 11%
Parole 3%
Federal Probation 1%
The remaining 46% are high-moderate to moderate clients’ having high risk factors (i.e. substance abuse) in need of services or programming to prevent further recidivism.

Reporting Centers have the ability to offer programming via Probation TeleServices (PTS).  PTS offers the availability for a two-way connection of two or more locations through audio and video equipment and merges the gap between barriers that probation officers, treatment providers, and clients deal with in the state of Nebraska due to transportation and logistical issues. PTS allows Probation the ability overcome the barriers of the rural nature of the state and allow for smaller communities to deliver services similar to that found in the more urban areas of the state.