Dallas County Criminal Justice Department

Criminal Justice Department Executive Team


Charlene Randolph Photo

Charlene Randolph, Director

Charlene Randolph is the Director of Criminal Justice Department at Dallas County, Texas.  In this role, she oversees a department that effectively manages the county’s criminal justice resources by reducing jail population and collaborating with other criminal justice partners and agencies to improve public safety programs and services across Dallas County, as well as leads other initiatives aimed at jail diversion and special need offenders (i.e. pregnant, mental health).  Charlene began her career at Dallas County in 2013 as the Project Manager for the 1115 Waiver- Crisis Services Project (CSP) which works to reduce jail recidivism and need for higher levels of care by ensuring Dallas County jail inmates with a suspected or confirmed mental health diagnosis are identified, assessed, and linked to community-based services when released.  Under her leadership, CSP has served over 24,000 unique clients since 2013 and successful outcome achievements for the initiative have resulted in over $18 million dollars in matched federal funds which have all been committed to improving client outcomes and the behavioral health delivery system in Dallas County.  Before working at Dallas County, Charlene worked for over 10 years at various non-profit organizations in the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area and her work spans the fields of case management, research and program evaluation, arts education, early child development, and juvenile justice.  Charlene received a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of North Texas and a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington.  Charlene is also a Dallas County Commissioners Court appointed board member of the North Texas Behavioral Health Authority (NTBHA) and a co-chair of the Dallas County Behavioral Leadership Team (BHLT) Adult Clinical Operations Team. 

Deborah Hill Photo

Deborah Hill, Assistant Director - CJ Planning 

Deborah Hill is the Assistant Director of Criminal Justice for the Dallas County Criminal Justice Department at Dallas County, Texas. In this role, she is responsible for co-leading and assisting in overseeing and directing the overall mission, goals, objectives and activities of the department. In addition to initiating ideas and plans on how to create strong collaborations with all Dallas County CJ partners, Deborah also oversee the following positions: Jail Population Manager, DIVERT Court Manager, Criminal Justice Advisory Board Manager (CJAB), CJD Data Analyst, DIVERT Court Administrative Coordinator, DIVERT Court Field Observation Officer, Mental Health Specialty Court Coordinator and SAMHSA Program Coordinator.

Deborah began her career at Dallas County in 2019 as a Pretrial Release Service Officer. In this role, she was tasked with enhancing public safety by providing supervision for individuals released on bond, to ensure court appearances and successful compliance with conditions of bond. She was later promoted to her current position as Assistant Director of Criminal Justice.

 Prior to working for Dallas County, Deborah began her career in Criminal Justice in 2000, with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Parole Division, as a Parole Caseworker II and later excelled to a Parole Officer I, II, III/Unit Supervisor and lastly, Internal Reviewer/Auditor & Trainer. During her tenure with the TDCJ, she not only provided supervision to individuals released on mandatory/parole supervision but also served in the capacity of a program facilitator of core/non-core programs, where she implemented & created life skills/cognitive program curriculums for female parolees. She was trained and skilled to supervise a variety of specialized caseload officers and programs, to include: Special Needs Offender Program, Terminally Ill/Physically Handicapped, Sex Offender Program, Electronic Monitoring and regular field supervision. She was acknowledged multiple times by the agency for her dedicated service to the Parole Division and recognized by the Dallas County Coalition of Criminal Justice  Agencies for her Professional Excellence in the Field of Community Justice, as she was named the 2011 Cynthia Lynn Eubanks Officer of the Year Award Recipient. Deborah received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminology/Criminal Justice, Business Administration minor, from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1999 and has since been an entrepreneurial as well, in the retail fashion industry.    

Laura Edmonds Photo

Laura Edmonds, Assistant Director - Behavioral Health

Laura Edmonds is the Assistant Director of the Dallas County Criminal Justice Department, where she manages staff and oversees the work the department does related to behavioral health jail diversion initiatives and programs. This involves oversight of the Criminal Justice Department’s 1115 Waiver Crisis Services Project, which works to ensure all Dallas County Jail inmates with a suspected or confirmed mental health diagnosis are identified, assessed, and have coordinated care to community-based services when released. Laura also oversees work related to Dallas County’s competency coordination and specialty court coordination and assistance, including working with various grants benefiting criminal justice system defendants. She regularly engages criminal justice system stakeholders to evaluate the behavioral healthcare and criminal justice system to address policy compliance and process improvement.

Prior to joining Dallas County and the Criminal Justice Department in 2016, Laura worked for three years providing direct clinical services and clinical management at a local mental health and substance use provider in Dallas. In her role as Clinical Manager, she supervised therapeutic staff, developed policies and procedures, oversaw quality management and program evaluation, and facilitated regular staff training. She was a court liaison and key coordinator of treatment services for specialty court defendants. Laura continues to provide direct clinical care by maintaining a private practice caseload.

Laura is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor. She has a M.A. in Counseling from Dallas Theological Seminary and a B.A. in Family Ministries from Moody Bible Institute. She is also a 2020 graduate of the Dallas County Leadership and Management Academy where she engaged in an intensive 9-month course to gain increased management and leadership skills.

LaShonda Jefferson Headshot Image

LaShonda Jefferson, Assistant Director - Jail Population Management

LaShonda Jefferson is the Assistant Director of the Dallas County (DC) Criminal Justice Department, dedicated to overseeing and managing DC Jail Population and county staff.

Ms. Jefferson began her career at DC in 2017, serving in the DC Pretrial Services Department where she assisted with establishing Policies and Procedures for a newly established Mental Health Personal Recognizance (PR) Bond program, aimed at providing community resources, treatment, and follow-up to individuals booking into jail with a behavioral health diagnosis. Additionally, she created a tracking mechanism for compiling and maintaining program statistical data used to analyze program success rates and provided recommendations for continued growth and development. Ms. Jefferson also served as the Senate Bill 292 Competency Restoration officer for the District Court program and assisted with the implementation and testing of a new case management system (Corrections Software Solutions-CSS).

Ms. Jefferson serves on several DC committees: Treasurer of the DC Coalition of Community Justice Agencies (DCCCJA), DC Mission Vision and Values Committee, CCP 16.22 Oversite Committee, 530C Specialty Court Subcommittee, Dallas Deflection Center Committee, Local Data Advisory Committee (EDR), Jail Sanitation Committee, Behavioral Health Leadership Team, and Information Technology Executive Governance Committee (ITEGC), to name a few.

Ms. Jefferson has worked in the Criminal Justice field since 2004. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice & Criminology from the Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado in 2004. She is a proud graduate of the first inaugural 9-month DC Leadership and Management Academy in 2020. Ms. Jefferson also successfully completed the 6-month National Association of Counties (NACo) Professional Development Academy in 2021. Lastly, Ms. Jefferson was awarded DC Employee of the Year for Courts and Justice Administration in 2020.

Ms. Jefferson believes it is essential to continually develop yourself so that when a door opens, not only will you be able to compete for that experience, but if provided with the opportunity, you have the ability to perform in the role successfully.