Community Justice Assistance Division

What We Do: The Role of the Division

TDCJ-CJAD administers community supervision, or adult probation, in Texas. The 71st Texas Legislature changed the term adult probation to community supervision in 1989.

Offenders on community supervision serve their sentences in the community, rather than in prison. More than 420,000 offenders are on community supervision in Texas; approximately 248,000 felons and 175,000 misdemeanants.

TDCJ-CJAD does not work directly with offenders; rather, it works with the community supervision and corrections departments or CSCDs, which supervise the offenders.

The division's work includes:

Tracking the performance of community supervision departments
Monitoring and reviewing supervision department budgets
Distributing state funding to the departments
Enforcing community supervision standards
Giving departments administrative and technical help
Training and certifying community supervision officers

TDCJ-CJAD has seven sections. The division director seeks advice from a 12-member council of judges and citizens, known as the Judicial Advisory Council or JAC.

The standards, rules and guidelines the division proposes must be approved by the Texas Board of Criminal Justice or TBCJ before they can be adopted.

Main Office
209 W. 14th Street, Suite #400,
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 305-9300