By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Although she’s only been in her current role as Kosciusko County Work Release Director since January, Heather Desenberg hit the ground running.

Not satisfied with simply settling into the position and maintaining things, she has implemented numerous changes at the facility. 

“I think one of the changes is we’re working off a little more trust. We’re learning here, probably because it’s me and I didn’t come from law enforcement into this position,” Desenberg said. “I’m a civilian coming in so in my mind, this is a step down from jail. This is like a step to the outside. We need to give them the tools here so that when they go to Community Corrections, it’s not a stressor for them or an anxiety trigger that sends them back to where they were.”

Desenberg grew up in the Warsaw area. She graduated from Warsaw Community High School in 1988 and Franklin College in 1992. 

She and her husband, Louis, reside in Warsaw. They have two daughters, Page and Lex, who are both currently attending college. 

Prior to becoming the work release director, Desenberg was employed previously as the Human Resources manager at Flexaust in Warsaw. Before that, she worked as an attendance officer at WCHS. She was also employed at DePuy for about eight years.

Her interest in working with inmates began with her involvement in the Kosciusko County Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP).

While Desenberg was working at Flexaust, JCAP Coordinator Courtney Jenkins reached out to see if they were interested in helping to teach inmates skills for re-entering the workforce.

“So one of the first groups of JCAP that went through the jail with Courtney Jenkins, we were asked to help, so we went and basically taught a class on interviewing, how to fill out a resume, how to act during an interview,” Desenberg said.

She has continued to work with Jenkins and the JCAP participants for the past three years. When the work release position became available, following the retirement of former director, First Sergeant Larry Holderman, Desenberg felt she would be a good fit.

“I have changed a lot of things in my short tenure here,” Desenberg said. “One of the other really big things we’re doing is bringing out classes… AA, NA. We’d like to do parenting classes.”

Many of the participants at work release did not go through JCAP, meaning they were not involved in the classes offered through that program. The classes offered at work release are not mandatory.

“The ones who have done JCAP and then come out here, it’s weird to me that you would give them that – and then you just stop. And they’re not continuing that, which is something they need. There’s that saying, ‘Idle hands are the devil’s work’ and they don’t need that,” Desenberg said. “What I’ve found is a lot of times they’ll sit in here and we’ll just talk. They don’t want to watch TV, but they can’t go outside. They only go out to go to work.”

That’s another thing Desenberg would like to change. 

“I want to get them outside, exercising, walking, moving, rather than just sitting around,” she said. “I want to have them go to the humane shelter and walk dogs. We’ve contacted a couple of cemeteries about picking up trash, so when it gets nicer out we could take a group to do that.”

Work release participants are currently not allowed to go to a restaurant.

“That’s something i’d like to change because that’s another step,” Desenberg said. “They can go to Walmart or Kohls or TJ Maxx during their pass on Sundays as long as they fill out a pass and show us the receipt when they come back. They can do that, but they can’t go to a restaurant and eat. I think that’s weird.” 

Desenberg said some work release residents don’t go home on Sundays. For some, home may not be a safe place. Others live out of state and have no family in the area.

“So where do they go on Sunday? What I would like to do is open that up for them. Applebees is right here. What if they run over to Applebees and have lunch and come back? They need the interaction with people,” Desenberg said. “It’s kind of a weekly thing here for me to say ‘why can’t we do that?’”

She is also working on a mentor program.

“JCAP is a prime example,” she said. “People make contacts.”

Desenberg pointed to a picture she has in her office of the first JCAP group she was involved with. Of the 10 men pictured in the photo, she believes she hired eight of them at Flexaust.

“Since I’ve been here, two of them have come in – and they were here previously – and asked if they can come back in and talk to people and say ‘Hey, it’s okay on the outside. You can do this and you can stay sober,’” Desenberg said. “These 10 guys really taught me a lot.”

Desenberg continues to be involved with the JCAP program but said she will likely now be involved in a different capacity. 

On average, the Kosciusko County Work Release Center house approximately 74 participants. Desenberg said that number is split pretty evenly between males and females.

When asked if the job is turning out to be what she expected, Desenberg replied, “It’s what I expected, but I think being a civilian and coming into law enforcement, it is different. There are a lot of things that I don’t know when it comes to the law.”

She credits assistant directors Kelly Prater and Tammy Rocky, who have both been involved in law enforcement for years, with educating her.

“It feels a little like everybody is teaching everybody. I didn’t know what to expect, so it’s been good,” Desenberg said. 

She said the changes she’s making are to benefit the work release participants. 

“I’m willing to listen and help make it better for them. They’re still incarcerated, but again with the trust… it has to be a step down,” Desenberg said. “It can’t go jail, jail, community corrections…it’s jail, work release, community corrections. We have to teach them the next steps for going back into the community.”

Her biggest goal in this position is changing the mindset of how work release participants are looked at.

“I don’t like to call them felons or inmates…let’s look at who they are…because you can change and you can be better and maybe while we’re educating our residents here, I hope that we can also educate the community to understand they’re not all bad people,” Desenberg said. “I learn from them every day. They teach me as much as I teach them.”