Special Needs Unit/
Sex Offender Unit
Field Probation Services operates one unit which handles highly specialized juvenile probationers with two different sets of issues. Probation officers in the Special Needs Unit (SNU) are assigned to supervise youth on probation who have been diagnosed as exhibiting some type of mental or medical impairment which significantly hampers their overall functioning. Probation staff partners with Dallas Metrocare therapists to deliver special services to youth with mental health issues, psychiatric symptoms or emotional disturbance. Staff designs highly individualized supervision plans which incorporate intensive in-home family therapy, medication management when necessary and other community-based resources.
Probation officers in the Sex Offender Supervision (SOS) unit supervise youth with sexual offending behavior who are still able to remain in the home and receive intensive outpatient sex offender therapy. These youth are closely monitored in all of their activities, with special attention paid to their attendance/progress in therapy and their interaction with younger children. These youth must also submit to regular polygraph examinations to ensure that they are not relapsing, and their home computers are routinely monitored by their probation officers via a specialized technology program which detects whenever inappropriate websites are visited. This unit also supervises youth who return to the community from residential sex offender inpatient therapeutic placements to closely monitor their transition back home.
