Dear DPP Colleagues,

As we pause to observe National  Pretrial, Probation, and Parole Supervision Week 2015 and celebrate our successes, I consider myself privileged to serve as Maryland’s Director of the Division of Parole and Probation and to have this opportunity to express my heartfelt appreciation to all of you.

Collectively and collaboratively you supervise, monitor, or support these functions for approximately 60,000 pretrial defendants as well as probationers, parolees, mandatory releasees, and several hundred offenders in home detention. On a daily basis you are exposed to many negative aspects of life; deal with the trauma that offenders cause victims; as well as cope with the often challenging conditions in which you work.

Yet, you remain dedicated to making our communities safer places. You work with victims and help them to feel that justice is served. You enrich communities and rebuild families by supporting our population through the process of becoming productive and responsible. And, you partner with other criminal justice agencies to have risky individuals swiftly removed from the community when necessary.

I am especially moved by your longstanding philanthropic dependability and quiet kindness to individuals in need who, without your generosity, would undoubtedly suffer great hardship. Year after year you help both colleagues and complete strangers to recover from the destructive effects of human-made and natural disasters — you never fail to get involved.

You step up every year during the Maryland Charities Campaign. You organize community-improvement events throughout the year, including back-to-school supply drives, food drives, blood drives, as well as filling clothing donation boxes on behalf of programs that help impoverished people return to work.

Your services are critical… you are home land security… for if we don’t feel safe at home, world safety will mean little to us.  National Pretrial, Probation and Parole Supervision Week is intended to honor the work that you do.

Thank you for all you do to help Maryland communities become safer, healthier, and more economically viable.

Judy

Judith Sachwald

Director of Parole and Probation