ADC Program Services

Director of
Program Services
Cree Zischke

Division Director of Program Services: Cree Zischke

Arizona Correctional Industries
Counseling and Treatment Services
Women's Services
Health Care Services
Offender Services Bureau
Religious and Volunteer Services
Workforce Development

Program Division Mission

Through full programming of ADC offenders, the Programs Division intends to contribute to putting a dent in Arizona's relapse, revocation, and recidivism rates by the end of three years. A strategic and integrated approach to offender programming that combines the strengths of Health, Religious Services, Workforce Development, Work-based Education (Vocational Training), Mental Health Symptom Management, Alcohol and Drug programming, and Sex Offender Treatment delivers that promise. Targeted for change are those risk factors that drive offender criminality. This approach strengthens prison security and supports programs that normalize and reinforce responsible offender behavior through a "Parallel Universe" philosophy. This is a system of "Change for Success by Design".

Program Division Strategy

Our strategy is to provide evidenced-based programming opportunities and services that sound social science research identifies as risk reducing activities. We will use proven techniques embedded in social learning theory, and behavioral repetition that supports personal accountability, followed by positive reinforcement. With the funding provided by Arizona citizens, Programs will require offenders to “practice on the inside” the behaviors that produce civil and productive citizens on the outside. Our strategic goal for offender programming incorporates a business-like approach.

Program Division Systems for Change

The automated Offender Intake and Assessment document provides an appropriate classification and institutional placement to each offender who is committed to the Arizona Department of Corrections, as well as a “program road map”.

Arizona Correctional Industries (ACI) is an integral component of the overall Arizona Department of Corrections prison work program. Legislatively mandated to operate as a fiscally self-sufficient enterprise, ACI provides business and industry activities which trains and employs offenders in jobs that reflect employment opportunities found in the community. The industries and enterprises operated by ACI provide valuable training and employment of offenders in the manufacturing of products or production of services as needed for the construction, operation, maintenance or use of any office, department, institution or agency supported by the state, its political subdivisions, or for sale to the public. Being able to work and support your family is one of the four core building blocks for community success.

The Offender Services Bureau has responsibility in the following areas: Intake and Assessment, Offender Classification/Movement, Offender Information, Protective Segregation, Time Computation, and Public Access. Offenders received into the Arizona Department of Corrections are initially classified utilizing an objective Custody Classification System (CCS)

Consistent with community standards Health Care Services provides quality medical care and services responsive to the offender population to include: medical services, dental care, primary nursing care, and quality pharmacy care. Keeping offenders healthy is the basic platform from which the offender is launched to successfully complete basic education, workforce development, and alcohol and drug treatment sessions essential to building good citizenship and self-sufficiency. The Correctional Public Health program assists in reducing the incidence and spread of communicable diseases, making the prison system a healthy and productive environment for both staff and offenders.

Counseling and Treatment Services (CTS) is the bureau of the Programs Division which is responsible for the provision of behavioral health treatment services to the incarcerated population of the Arizona Department of Corrections. CTS is committed to the provision of effective evidence-based treatment services to incarcerated offenders in the ADC. Timely, appropriate treatment helps offenders to engage fully in educational and workforce development and prepare for successful reintegration into our communities.

Realizing the importance of Workforce Development , we will provide basic educational services to offenders in four program areas: Functional Literacy, GED Preparation, Work-based Education, and Special Education. Opportunities for the employment of offenders in meaningful jobs develops good working habits and reinforces work-based education, which will assist offenders in eventually securing and holding family wage employment on the outside.

The presence of a spiritual environment models, promotes, and encourage offenders to develop a sense of hope and a redemptive and productive lifestyle. The Department's Volunteer program provides spiritual programming through a respected and recognized volunteer community that reinforces spiritual, educational and other pro-social values and beliefs. Positive spiritual reentry mentors wrap support systems around each offender. This is a recognized core building block to long term public safety and civil and productive citizenship.

The Women's Services is responsible for directing and managing all family and offender related issues involving female offenders under the Department's supervision. From intake and assessment, to complex based programming to re-entry, the Women's Services emphasis is on servicing better those under the Arizona Department of Corrections management. The ultimate goal of the Arizona Department of Corrections is to improve public safety. The Women's Services unit ties together with many concurrent and interrelated efforts in the department and its partners into a cohesive strategy to reduce recidivism and influence offenders into becoming productive citizens.

Reduced victimization and building restorative justice values in the offender population are central to living a safe, civil, and productive life. Cognitive Restructuring concepts will serve as our thinking and language for change.

For further information, please contact
Program Division (602) 364-3234