City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: JANUARY 20, 2021
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Pretrial and Probation Office Transition to Standalone Unit.
BODY
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ISSUE: Transfer of Pretrial and Probation Office from the Sheriff's Department to the City Manager's Office.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council concur in the transition of the Pretrial and Probation Office to standalone status from its current organizational status as reporting to the Sheriff's Office, per termination of the Memorandum of Understanding in which the City of Alexandria is the Administrator and the Sheriff's Office has been the Implementing Agent.
BACKGROUND: Local probation services began in Alexandria in 1997 and pretrial services in 2001, following the Comprehensive Community Corrections Act (CCCA, ?9.1-173 COV) that enabled any city, county or combination thereof to develop, establish, and maintain a local community-based probation services agency to provide the judicial system with sentencing alternatives that do not include incarceration for persons convicted of felonies that are not acts of violence, have less than a 12 month sentence, and may not require institutional custody. Throughout the Commonwealth, these offices have been, and continue to be, partially funded through an annual Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services grant with a local match.
Over 20 years ago, the City placed the Pretrial and Probation Office within the Sheriff's Department when the program began and, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the City is the Administrator and Fiscal Agent for the program and the Alexandria Sheriff's Office has been the Implementing Agent (Attachment 1). The MOU allows the Implementing Agent to terminate the agreement to oversee the program if they provide a 90-day notice. The Sheriff prov...
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