Probation Services
TJJD’s Probation Services Division works with probation departments across Texas to enhance the many services offered to local youth referred to them. We work together across all areas of juvenile justice to coordinate efforts among juvenile boards and juvenile probation departments and the divisions of TJJD.
This vital state-county partnership encourages participation from all departments. TJJD and Probation Services understand and recognize the wide diversity in the many departments across the state, though we all share the vital goal of helping young people reform and find success.
Probation Services serves as a nexus and resource for innovative approaches and solutions that can help in our shared mission, assuring successful operations of the county departments and TJJD.
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County and state juvenile authorities have different, but interrelated, roles to play across the continuum of services. Counties serve all youth coming into contact with the system, a full menu of activities and programs from preventive to prescriptive, covering deferred adjudication, probation, and detention. TJJD assists these efforts through state contracts and grants and by managing the regionalization efforts integral to keeping the system connected. TJJD also manages parole and re-entry services, effectively the far end of the continuum, therein closing the loop of services and reconnecting with probation departments as youths return to their communities after commitment to TJJD facilities.
This is the scaffolding of our Texas unified juvenile justice system, in which local and state juvenile justice authorities support each other to further our mutual goal of helping youth succeed, while also being held accountable.
Deputy Executive Director of Probation, Reentry, and Community Services
lou.serrano@tjjd.texas.gov
I’ve been working in juvenile justice for more than 30 years and am delighted to lead TJJD’s Probation Services, where we help connect dedicated juvenile justice professionals from across Texas to resources and innovations. It has been our pleasure serving the state’s 164 county juvenile probation departments and 45 detention centers and providing them with expertise and state funding and grants to build their programs. In this section of our website you’ll find information about contracts and grants, regionalization and state reentry and parole services.
Ashley Kintzer
Director of Probation Services
ashley.kintzer@tjjd.texas.gov
(512) 484-9094
The Probation and Community Services Division, which I oversee, consists of four departments: Regionalization, Community Interventions and Supports, Interstate Compact, and Integrated Supports. Our division works with and for all seven juvenile probation regions in Texas. Our stakeholders are the juvenile probation field and the youth and families those probation departments support.
I’ve worked in juvenile justice in various capacities since 2008, when I started at our legacy Texas Youth Commission, and I enjoy my current role connecting with probation departments across the state.
Ryan Bristow
Director of Regionalization
ryan.bristow@tjjd.texas.gov
(512) 460-0946
The Regionalization Division consists of seven Regional County Program Administrators, each assigned to the seven juvenile justice regions of Texas. Their focus is the diversion of youth eligible for commitment to TJJD, execution of the Regionalization Plan, technical grant assistance and expanding/enhancing program juvenile justice development within each region. One county grants data analyst also supports the division to ensure quality data and regular review of outcomes for discretionary state aid grant awardees.
I have been with TJJD for seven years and previously worked in the county probation field for nearly ten years. It is a pleasure to get to work with the entire juvenile justice system in the state of Texas.
Todd Novak
Director of Reentry Services
todd.novak@tjjd.texas.gov
(281) 642-6244
Reentry services assists youth planning to transition to parole, halfway houses and contract care as they reintegrate into a community environment with a focus on rehabilitation while maintaining community safety. Our department also is responsible for victim’s rights, sex offender registration, DFPS relations and management of the trust fund scholarships for qualified current and former TJJD youth.
With over 30 years in criminal justice starting in adult probation and moving to juvenile parole, where I developed programming for youth involved in gangs, I understand and respect the challenges of the families and youth we serve.
