photo by: Mackenzie Clark

Pam Weigand, Douglas County's director of criminal justice services, presents a 2018 department report at a meeting of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is leading a training program focused on understanding the decision-making processes of criminal offenders and how to help them make better choices.

The training is for a program called Decision Points and it is led by the Sheriff’s Office Reentry staff for community organizations that work directly with people reentering society from jail or prison. The program is used in correctional facilities and can translate to life on the outside, said Pam Weigand, director at Douglas County Criminal Justice Services.

“It is an open-ended evidence-based program, which means that participants can start the program at any point in the program,” Weigand said.

Decision Points uses different learning styles in a group setting and progresses through four steps of cognitive thinking during role-playing activities. The real-life scenarios better accommodate individuals who lack reading and writing skills, Weigand said. By slowing down the thinking process, clients can better control their impulsive choices, she said.

The open-group format has allowed Douglas County Community Corrections to serve a variety of clients, Weigand said. So far, the program has served 61 people since it was started in February of 2021.

Weigand said that people who are participating in the program generally have been assigned by the court system to participate in the sessions.

However, the training program that Douglas County officials currently are leading will allow other organizations in the community to provide the Decision Points sessions. That could open up opportunities for individuals in the community to participate in the Decision Points sessions even if a court has not assigned them to do so.

Once trained to provide Decision Points group sessions, organizations will be able to offer the flexible decision-making activities to their clients who have a history of making bad decisions, said participant Kar Woo, president of Artists Helping the Homeless (AHH).

“Not only do we need correct decision-making skills, but we also need to learn how to learn from our mistakes,” Woo said.

The AHH organization runs transitional housing programs, Kairos House and Meraki House. As the Journal World previously reported, the houses are recommended to people who are leaving the Douglas County Jail and are at risk of becoming homeless once they have completed their sentence.

Woo said he and three of his colleagues have begun the Decision Points training to be able to offer the open-ended group support to the people who enter his housing program.

photo by: Mackenzie Clark

Kar Woo, founder of the Kansas City-based nonprofit Artists Helping the Homeless, speaks to the Douglas County Commission during its work session on Wednesday, April 17, 2019.

“Because of past traumas they tend to react differently,” Woo said, “We can provide them a safety net so they can make a correct decision without having to worry about surprises along the way.”

Woo said his team has gone through all types of training to deal with clients coming through their houses, but this is the first time they have done training with the sheriff’s office’s reentry team. He said that carrying over the same decision-making training from jail into housing could give people reentering society a better chance at avoiding bad decisions in the long term.

“People we work with tend to follow through,” Woo said. “The majority of those we work with have jobs so they can get back on track in life.”

Other participants in the Decision Points training include DCCCA, Johnson County Corrections and staff from Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. Groups seeking more information about how to be involved with the Decision Points training can contact Douglas County Criminal Justice Services at 785-832-5220.