Piedmont Court Services

HISTORY OF PIEDMONT COURT SERVICES

In October 1983, Piedmont Court Services, with headquarters located in Farmville, Virginia was established under a Joint Exercise of Powers resolution. The Piedmont Court Services office located in Halifax, Virginia served Halifax, South Boston and Pittsylvania counties, and the Piedmont Court Services office located in Boydton, Virginia served Mecklenburg county. By resolution of all participating counties, the Piedmont Court Services office in Farmville, Virginia was established to serve the nine counties of Amelia, Appomattox, Buckingham, Charlotte, Cumberland, Lunenburg, Nottoway, Powhatan and Prince Edward. Piedmont Court Services administered the Community Diversion Incentive (CDI) Act.

The CDI Act authorized the Department of Corrections to provide direct funding to counties and cities to develop, establish and maintain programs for the purpose of providing the judicial system with sentencing alternatives for certain non-violent offenders. These offenders may have required less than incarceration but more than probation supervision. CDI was designed to provide services for offenders whose primary need was treatment. Inherent in the success of the program was the screening and acceptance of appropriate nonviolent adult offenders and the swift return of uncooperative offenders to the court.

As was legislatively mandated, one (1) Community Corrections Resources Board (CCRB) advised CDI programs located in Farmville, Halifax and Mecklenburg. On July 1, 1992, Piedmont Court Services added a second CCRB, which was served solely by the Halifax and Boydton CDI offices responsible for Halifax, Pittsylvania and Mecklenburg counties.

Until July 1, 1995, Piedmont Court Services was comprised of three boards; the Executive Board and the Community Corrections Resources Boards (CCRB) I and II. The Executive Board established policy and administered the CDI program. Its membership consisted of the General District Court judges or representatives appointed by the judges. The membership of the CCRB's was composed of representatives of each county Board of Supervisors, and one representative of the Department of Corrections. Additionally, each Circuit Court judge appointed a representative. The CCRB received felon referrals from the appropriate judge, obtained diagnostic evaluations, as necessary, and provided recommendations to the judge regarding the non-violent offender's ability to benefit from an alternative to incarceration. The offender's individualized treatment plan and stated CDI obligations accompanied the CCRB's recommendations. The sentencing judge determined the success or failure to complete the program based on CDI staff recommendations.

As a result of 1995 state legislation, entitled the "Comprehensive Community Corrections Act (CCCA) for Locally Responsible Offenders", the Executive Board and the CCRBs statewide were abolished effective July 1, 1995, and the CDI programs became known as CCCA programs. Since July 1, 1995, the funding for the CCCA programs has been provided by the Department of Criminal Justice Services by means of grants.

A requirement of the CCCA legislation is that a Community Criminal Justice Board (CCJB) be established for every catchment area that has a CCCA program. As a result, a separate CCJB was organized by each of the CCCA programs in Farmville, Halifax and Mecklenburg. The CCJB is an advisory board, and its membership consists of individuals holding legislatively-mandated positions, i.e., judges, a sheriff, commonwealth's attorney, defense attorney, jail administrator, as well as representatives of the local governing bodies.

For Piedmont Court Services, these individuals are agreed upon by the Boards of Supervisors in this multi-jurisdiction, which is composed of the eight (8) counties of Amelia, Buckingham, Charlotte, Cumberland, Lunenburg, Nottoway, Powhatan, and Prince Edward. The County of Prince Edward serves as the fiscal/administrative agent for Piedmont Court Services.