General Overview

Douglas County Community Justice Services operates out of the Eighteenth Judicial District in the Robert A. Christensen Justice Center and is under the general direction of the County Manager. Community Justice Services (CJS) currently has 15 full-time positions, which include a Director, two Supervisors, nine CJS Officers and three Division Clerks.

The CJS division is currently comprised of five programs:

• Community Service
• Pretrial Intake
• Pretrial Release Supervision
• Electronic In-home Detention
• Call Ahead Court Reminder

Community Service
(Governance C.R.S. 18-1.3-507, 42-4-1301, 42-4-1701, 19-2-308)

Community Service, also known as Alternative Service/Useful Public Service, is designed to help alleviate jail crowding by offering the District and County courts an alternate sentencing option.  As a substitute to serving a jail sentence, the courts may opt to have the defendant perform community service. Our CJS officers place and supervise defendants who have been convicted of traffic, misdemeanor and felony offenses and who are ordered by the court to perform community service. This is a restorative approach to sentencing that allows the defendants to give back to the community.  

Pretrial Release Supervision
(Governance- C.R.S. 16-4-102, 16-4-103, 16-4-104 & 16-4-105)

Pretrial Release Supervision is designed to ease jail overcrowding by supervising defendants who are released from jail during the pretrial stage of their criminal case. CJS officers review and verify the initial evaluation of a defendant and make a determination of the person's risk and needs. Each defendant is informed of the bond conditions of their release, which may include but are not limited to:

• compliance with the mandatory protection order
• abstinence from alcohol/illicit drug use, no possession or use of firearms
• periodic telephone contacts
• office visits
• electronic home monitoring
• GPS monitoring
• home site checks
• mental health evaluations
• substance abuse evaluations and treatment. 

CJS officers report back to the District / County courts on the defendant’s compliance, or noncompliance with the court ordered conditions of bond.

Pretrial Intake
(Governance - C.R.S. 16-4-102, 16-4-103, 16-4-104 & 16-4-105)

Pretrial Intake operates out of the Douglas County Sheriff’s detention facility and is responsible for interviewing and preparing bond reports on defendants, as they are booked into the facility.  The bond reports contain information that will be used by the District/County courts to set appropriate bonds on criminal cases. Pretrial intake handles a large portion of the on-call responsibilities associated with the defendants who are electronically monitored as a condition of bond.  The CJS officers in this program are assigned the responsibility of investigating defendants who fail to appear for their scheduled court dates and making arrangements for the defendants to turn themselves in, or to be picked up by law enforcement. 

Electronic In-home Detention
(Governance – C.R.S. 18-1.3-106(4))

In-home Detention is an alternative to incarceration sentencing options made available to the District/County courts of Douglas County.  This sentencing option is commonly referred to as "home detention" and allows the defendant to remain gainfully employed while they serve their court ordered sentence.  By statute, the defendant is only allowed out of their residence for work, court ordered treatment and medical related matters.  CJS is able to monitor a defendant’s alcohol consumption and whereabouts electronically, which holds the defendant accountable for court ordered conditions of home detention. 

Court Call Ahead Reminder Program

Courts across the country have experienced increases in case filings, as well as increases in the numbers of defendants who fail to appear (FTA) for their court dates. In Douglas County, court filings have increased significantly over the last ten years and consequently have more people failing to appear for their scheduled court dates. With every failure to appear it has been calculated that we expend 2.5 hours of staff time, which is a significant amount over a twelve month period of time. By simple calling and remind individuals of their next court date we have successfully reduced our FTA numbers by more than 50%. This further translates into staff savings and has provided a much needed outlet of information for individuals to appear in court.