Director of Criminal Justice Services Pam Weigand oversees Juvenile Detention Center, Adult and Youth Services

As Director of Criminal Justice Services, Pam Weigand oversees the Juvenile Detention Center, Youth Services and Adult Services. These services include: juvenile intake and assessment, day school, truancy prevention and diversion program, community services, juvenile and adult community corrections, behavioral health court, pretrial release and house arrest. She has about 60 staff members and an annual budget of $4.5 million.

“My department provides supports to people so they can maintain in the community. That’s what we do on every level. We are trying to support people to be successful in the community,” she said.

“When you think back over your life, you really remember moments in time. Everybody here hopes to make a connection with a person in one way or another. You hope that somehow that one moment in time connects with that person and helps make the difference for them or helps them feel supported. Sometimes somebody comes into your life, and your like, ‘Wow, they changed everything.’” 

Weigand enjoys her job because she’s always learning something new. She also credits her staff members. “I couldn’t do this without an incredible staff. There’s just no way,” she said. “I’ve been fortunate because many have stayed with me for a long time.”

Weigand (pronounced Wee-jund) grew up in upstate New York and then moved with her family to the Midwest when she was 10 years old. She lived in Hastings, Neb., and then Derby, Kan., where she graduated from high school. She received a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice from Washburn University and a Master of Public Administration from KU. Weigand said her grandfather was a teacher at Elmira Reformatory in New York and her mother was a deputy sheriff in Bath, N.Y. “We have a really long correctional history in our family,” she said. “Since I was a kid, I thought it was really cool and important work.”

After college graduation, she began working at The Institute of Logopedics, now called Heartsprings, in Wichita. It provides services and therapies for children with special needs and developmental disabilities. She started by working with two boys who had autism and seizure disorders, and then soon became the supervisor of residential programs.

In 1984, she began working in Hutchinson as the assistant director of a youth crisis shelter called the Bob Johnson Youth Shelter. She was named director about one year later. While she worked there, it evolved into Reno County Youth Services, which included a juvenile intake and assessment center and juvenile detention center in addition to the shelter.

In May 1992, Weigand was hired by Douglas County as director of the Northeast Kansas Youth Detention Center, which needed to be established and built. She helped find a location for the center and then worked with the construction company on the design. The center opened in 1995 in North Lawrence at 330 NE Industrial Lane and is now called the Juvenile Detention Center.

When the detention center opened, it was constantly full. So, Weigand worked with staff, school superintendents and a local judge to figure out why so many kids were in detention. “Most of them were probation violations or a direct correlation to school – lack of attendance, school failures or misbehavior,” she said. With a $51,000 grant, they were able to hire a staff member and provide day school. “It worked really well,” she said. “At the time, we didn’t realize kids would want to stay, but they did. They liked the continuity and the structure.”

With the addition of day school and Juvenile Community Corrections, the Department name changed to Douglas County Youth Services in 2003.

In 2011, the community’s truancy prevention and diversion program was in jeopardy due to a loss of state support. Weigand met with then County Administrator Craig Weinaug to see if she could reassign a staff member to work full-time with the program, and he agreed. The program pairs youth and KU Applied Behavioral Health senior intern students. Youth develop study skills and earn gift cards when they do well in the program. In 2017-2018, 71 students completed the program.

“The county’s philosophy is that they are all of our kids, and so we need to do whatever we can to keep them out of the deep end. Ultimately, we don’t want them to become involved in our Adult Services, so we want to help as early as possible,” she said.

During the past year and a half, Weigand has taken on a new house arrest program, behavioral health court and pretrial release program. Adult Community Corrections also was moved under her department, which is now called Criminal Justice Services. Her staff has doubled in size.

She has found the changes beneficial. “It’s easier to collaborate because the clients are often similar. Many pretrial residents are also on house arrest. You work with the same clients, and unfortunately, we do see youth back in the system as adults.”

Weigand also serves as chair of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), which was formed in 2016. She believes CJCC has helped create awareness in the community about the criminal justice system and helped educate its members. “It’s better to have a collective conversation instead of private conversations because you get all of the perspectives. I think everyone has learned a lot.”

Weigand said she has seen a lot of change while working in criminal justice for 34 years. “When I started, we were incarcerating people for minor stuff, and now I think the pendulum has swung to the other side and I think in a really good way. We certainly don’t want to be doing harm. That’s the goal,” she said.

She said working with youth can be really rewarding. “I think they are inherently good; they just make bad choices. Their brains aren’t fully developed, so you have an opportunity to help them shift the way they think or help them feel supported so they can be more successful.”

Weigand and her staff develop relationships with youth. “It’s important for me to be approachable, so kids can talk to me."

Weigand also enjoys working with youth outside of work. She and her sister have volunteered to coach basketball for Douglas County Special Olympics for 15 years. “We have a great time with them,” she said. She said the team members will say, ‘Hey, Coach,” when they see her in the community.

* Story by Communications Specialist Karrey Britt