By Gary Popp
The Evening News and The Tribune
CLARK COUNTY — The four judges that oversee the Clark County Circuit Court named a new chief probation officer.
The office of presiding Clark County Judge Vicki Carmichael issued a news release Tuesday announcing that Jamie Hayden will take on the position Jan. 12. Hayden will replace Clark County Chief Probation Officer Henry Ford.
“Jamie [Hayden] will continue the work of consolidating the department that was begun three years ago by Ford,” according to the release. “Henry will now serve as assistant chief probation officer with primary responsibility for Juvenile Probation.”
Hayden has served as a probation officer for Clark County for 21 years and most recently as the division chief for the Adult Probation Division. Ford served as a juvenile probation officer prior to becoming chief of the consolidated probation department.
“The consolidated probation department, under Ford’s leadership, accomplished many tasks, including merging the entire department’s multiple case management systems to a single Odyssey case management system,” according to the statement from Carmichael’s office. “This resulted in a cost savings to the county of thousands of dollars as Odyssey is managed by the state and is free of charge to the counties.”
In addition, Ford drafted an employee handbook, job descriptions for each employee and numerous policies and procedures for the department.
Carmichael said Wednesday that the decision to restructure the probation department staff came after several months of discussion that included Ford’s input.
“Henry had done a good job, and he was ready to move back to juvenile probation and do more hands-on probation work, and Jamie [Hayden] was the logical choice with his tenure and experience. It was an agreed-upon change of leadership.”
Ford said Wednesday that he was supportive of the restructuring.
“I’m thrilled to be going back to my passion of working with juveniles. We have some great programs starting up in the Juvenile Division,” he said.
Ford also said that he is proud of his accomplishments at the chief probation officer.
“I was honored and appreciated the opportunity I was given over the last three years to serve the Board of Judges as chief probation officer,” Ford is quoted in the media release. “I look forward to the opportunity to go back and work with the juvenile probation officers and all of the ongoing juvenile initiatives taking place in Clark County.”
Carmichael stated that Ford was an “excellent choice as our first chief probation officer for the consolidated department” and that he displayed outstanding leadership in the position.
In the release, Carmichael states that she looked forward to Ford’s return to juvenile probation and believes his leadership there will continue to move the juvenile programs forward.