Speech and Testimony
County Executive Leggett’s Remarks at the Correctional Employees Annual Awards Ceremony
As prepared
I am very pleased to be here today as I have in years past to honor those staff in the Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation nominated by their colleagues for special recognition over the past year.
We set aside this week as a time to honor those that work in a very difficult and complex environment, often unseen by the public, yet providing so much to the public safety of our community.
We set aside this week to honor those men and women who will meet people in their lowest moments, who've been defined by their worst act, and believe in the possibility that correction and rehabilitation are possible.
Because of that, and so much more, this department is a vital element of the Montgomery County public safety mission and the County as a whole.
Be it the Central Processing Unit, Pretrial Services, the jails, or our Community Release facility, your core mission of Care, Custody and Control is accomplished with the highest degree of professionalism to the best in correctional practices.
I offer my congratulations to all those who will receive awards of recognition for their work in this challenging field of public safety.
Thank you for accepting the challenges of this field and your continued willingness to serve the citizens of Montgomery County.
We must not forget that more than 90 percent of the individuals coming through our correctional system will one day return to the streets of our community; and combating recidivism is a fight we have to win before it starts.
As one of our former presidents recently said, our prisons should be a place where we can train people for skills that can help them find a job, not train them to become more hardened criminals.
Here in Montgomery County, we answered the bell. We put a job training center inside the prison walls to reduce occurrences of recidivism.
Our program has set a benchmark so high, the MCCF was recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education’s Director of Correctional Education due to the facility and it programs delivering high-quality reentry education and training to their population.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and staffers from the Department of Justice traveled to the MCCF to see the Model Learning Center and American Job Center because she wanted to see, firsthand, the facility’s education programs and to also learn more about the nexus of education and workforce development as it relates to Reentry.
In her own words, she praised the integrated, onsite education and career development services through the American Job Center.
She noted how the center sets willing participants up for future and long-term success with full-time GED, vocational and special education programs, and assists incarcerated individuals with skills assessments, job searches and further education planning before their release.
All of that started here and continues to grow throughout numerous States and local facilities across the nation.
Under Director Green’s leadership, this agency has confronted every single challenge and has delivered nationally recognized outcomes at the highest level of performance.
That level of esprit de corps permeates everything you do:
1) All DOCR facilities passed the ACA audits in 2016.
2) Your Honor Guard won the award for "Best Dressed" at the “Wreath Laying Ceremony and Honor Guard Competition” that was held during last year's National Corrections Officers Week in Washington, DC.
3) Your Chaplain received the “National Chaplain of the Year Award” for 2016 from Good News Jail and Prison Ministry.
4) And DOCR’s former Deputy Warden Chris Johnson received the 13th NACO Award for Solar and Advanced Energy Initiative
Success is endemic throughout your organization. You have my respect and admiration.
I am grateful for your dedication and enormous contribution in making this County a great place to work and live.
Thank you!
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Release ID: 17-049
May 9; 10:30 a.m.