Annual Report, Year 2011 - Monroe County Sheriff's Office

Citizens’ Crime Watch
Citizens’ Crime Watch is a nationally recognized crime
prevention program that brings neighbors and law enforcement
together to prevent crime. Crime Watch groups act as
the volunteer “eyes and ears” of the Sheriff’s Office.
The Crime
Watch Coordinator
is charged with
helping set up new
crime watches, coordinating
meetings
and communicating
crime trends and
other helpful information
to the existing
crime watches,
and with conducting
free home
Crime Watch Coordinator Emil LaVache
talks to school kids about crime prevention
and safety.
School-Crossing Guards
security surveys.
The program has
proven it’s worth
over the years here
in Monroe County.
The Sheriff’s Office is responsible for school-crossing
guards, and other school crossing duties, at several schools
in Monroe County. There are crossing-guards assigned to
work the school zones at Stanley Switlik Elementary School in
Marathon, and in front of Key Largo School. School resource
officers perform crossing-guard duties at other area schools,
including the school zone in front of Sugarloaf School, and in
front of Coral Shores High School / Plantation Key School in
the Upper Keys. The crossing guards in the unincorporated
areas are supervised by School Resource Sergeant Glenn
Test.
Juvenile Programs Unit
The goal of the Juvenile Programs Unit is to help prevent
young people from engaging in further delinquent behavior
and helps to prevent youthful offenders from becoming adult
offenders.
The Juvenile Civil Citation Program and Teen Court use
restitution, community service, curfew, letters of apology and
other methods to help re-direct youth in the program back
onto the right path.
The Juvenile Programs Unit
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The Intensive Delinquency Diversion Program (IDDS) is
a longer-term program for more serious offenders. It targets
education, job placement, youth and family counseling along
with substance abuse and mental health counseling in its efforts
to keep youth from committing further offenses.
Both programs are financed through a contract with the
Department of Juvenile Justice providing 38 slots for juvenile
offenders overseen by three highly trained case workers. It
also receives money from a fees attached to court cases.
For more information about any of these juvenile programs,
contact Supervisor Sherwood Hanford via email at
shanford@keysso.net or by phone at 305-292-7129.
Sheriff’s Office Animal Farm
The Sheriff’s Office Animal Farm is a facility that houses
approximately 250 animals of all types - from common barnyard
animals to exotic
birds and species from
the tropical rainforest.
It is located underneath
the main detention
center. It is open to the
public twice a month - on
the second and fourth
Sundays from 1-3 p.m. It
Farmer Jeanne Selander takes care
of the farm, the animals and the
grounds of the Sheriff’s Headquarters
complex.
affords Monroe County
kids the opportunity to
see and interact with animals
in a family-friendly
atmosphere that is free of
charge. Special group visits can also be scheduled. The farm
is supported in large part by donations from visitors.
This special place continues to be a big hit with families
and frequently sees visitors from local schools, nursing
homes, and other programs such as the Boys and Girls Club,
the YMCA and local church
groups.
The farm and its operations
are overseen by a paid
employee - Jeanne Selander
- who manages the animal
farm, and oversees the
maintenance of the detention
center and Sheriff’s Office
headquarters grounds.
The animals at the farm
are cared for primarily by
detention center inmates
who receive formal training
in some aspects of animal husbandry, which they may be able
to use once they are released
from the facility.
At the very least, they
learn to work closely
with many creatures in
need of the compassion
and caring of a human
being - an experience
which cannot help but
be a positive factor in
their lives.
The farm began as
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office - Annual Report 2011