Scot Dean named STAR award winner
One of Cedartown’s own was honored at a recent round of training for Georgia’s accountability courts.
Scot Dean was chosen as this year’s STAR award winner for probation officers among a statewide field of candidates. Dean, who now serves in Rome as the Chief Coordinator for the Department of Community Supervision, was previously part of the Tallapoosa Circuit Drug Court, having served from its inception in 2004.
“For me personally, the award is about the team, and not what I did,” Dean said.
He said that if it wasn’t for a team members like Drug Court Coordinator Regina Roberts, counselors Carlton and Larke Lanier and the probation officers that served alongside him, along with DFCS, officials in the District Attorney’s office including Jack Browning, and the public defender’s office to name a few, his job wouldn’t have gone so smoothly.
Though he’s working in Rome now with the Department of Community Supervision, he said that the drug court remains close to his heart and remains a necessary and positive part of the court system.
“In my opinion with the department of community supervision and the drug courts, you can’t keep a community safe without recognizing that a part of our society and community is addicted, impoverished, underserved, and in need of help,” he said. “That’s one of the things we try to provide in drug court, as well as the accountability needed to help people help themselves with overcoming their problems and become productive members of society.”
Dean has been employed by the state since 1990.
His award was handed out this past week during the three-day Council of Accountability Court Judges’ annual training conference held in Ath- ens on Sept. 17 through Sept. 19.
Last week’s conference provided classes for training and continuing education credits for all the accountability courts in the state, including family and juvenile courts, mental health courts, veteran’s courts, drug courts and DUI courts, among others.
The Tallapoosa Circuit Drug Court team members who took part in this year’s conference included Judge Meng H. Lim, Coordinator Regina Roberts, Treatment Professionals Carlton and Larke Lanier, Probation Officers Melissa Hood and Jolie Mason, Public Defender Tim Taylor, and DFCS Director Susan Ollis.
‘For me personally, the award is about the team, and not what I did.’
Scot Dean STAR award winner for
probation officers