The Douglas County commission meets in the historic courtroom on the second floor of the old county courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.

The Douglas County Commission will continue a series of work sessions Wednesday with discussion of whether oversight of the county’s Community Corrections should be returned to commissioners.

Robert Bieniecki, Douglas County criminal justice coordinator, said that by state statute, county commissions have oversight of their community corrections departments, which provide intensive supervision of felons on probation. However, Douglas County commissioners in the early 1990s transferred that responsibility to the Douglas County District Court.

Bieniecki said the 6th Judicial District of Douglas County is the only one in the state in which the county commission doesn’t have direct oversight of the local community corrections department.

Douglas County Community Corrections has 10 employees, six of whom provide probation supervision for between 180 and 200 convicted felons, Bieniecki said.

Commissioners have had weekly work sessions since Sept. 20 on issues concerning the expansion of the Douglas County Jail and the creation of a crisis intervention center. The commission’s review of Community Corrections is not directly related to those two issues, but does touch on programs the county has initiated in the past two years that are designed to find alternative placements for jail inmates.

Specifically, Bieniecki said, the work session will explore the advantages of transferring Community Corrections back to the County Commission’s authority so that its programs can be coordinated with the Behavioral Health Court, the pretrial release program, post-sentencing house arrest and other criminal justice initiatives.

Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug said the proposed transfer was an option for commissioners to consider. He does not expect action on the Community Corrections oversight at the work session, which starts at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.