ABOUT MJPS
We are an organization consisting of professionals working with offenders in jails throughout the State of Minnesota. We are working to provide an environment for a safe, secure, and smooth operating jail where offenders can learn to become law-abiding citizens. We promote crime prevention and public safety through:
1) improving management of offenders.
2) teaching those willing to learn to become more productive citizens upon re-entry into the community.
MISSION STATEMENT
The MJPS believes that jail programming is an integral part of the Criminal Justice System that should coordinate with the courts and court services. The mission of MJPS is to develop and support professional jail programming, to promote inmate rehabilitation and support jail practices that are consistent with constitutional requirements and professional operations.
GOALS
- Provide an organized forum and network for jail programmers and jail service providers.
- In coordination with the MSA Board of Directors, provide input to the State Department of Corrections concerning the minimum standards for jail programming.
- Develop a basic training curriculum for jail programming staff.
- Make recommendations to the Department of Corrections, legislators and other state officials concerning jail issues, through the MSA Board of Directors.
- Promote the professionalization and certification of jail staff.
- Provide technical assistance to new and existing jail programs.
- Promote rehabilitative concepts in local correctional facilities.
- Promote constitutional jail practices.
- Develop and circulate a newsletter for program staff.
HISTORY
In 1980, a group of sheriffs, jail administrators, jailers, probation officers, school teachers and a new breed of correctional people called "jail programmers" met at the Sunwood Inn in St. Cloud. The three day training was specifically designed to address the issue of developing programs within the local jails in Minnesota. This was necessitated as a result of a mandate from the Department of Corrections that jail programming become a necessary function within jails throughout the state. A small corps of "jail programmers" attended this training and from this small corps, grew this new and innovative concept for jails. Dr. Tom Reid, Director of the Minnesota Jail Resource Center promoted this new breed to formally organize into an association. Each year for the next three years the issue of formalizing this group was discussed, but no formal action was ever taken. Finally, in October 1983, an organizational committee was formed to begin work on developing the association. The first formal meeting of the general assembly of the Minnesota Association of Jail Programs and Services (MAJPS) met in Arden Hills in December. Officers were elected and a general format under which the association would operate was established. The association continued to meet quarterly. Logos, constitution and bylaws, membership, and goals were established for programming in the State of Minnesota. In the Spring of 2007 MAJPS became a division of the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association and was renamed Minnesota Jail Programs and Services (MJPS).