Continuity of Care and Information-Sharing Programs for Civilly Committed Sex Offenders

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Janet Latham is the Texas Civil Commitment Office’s Sex Offender Program Specialist. The Texas Civil Commitment Office is responsible for the supervision and treatment of sexually violent predators who have been civilly committed. Ms. Latham has worked in the field of criminal justice for approximately 30 years. Ms. Latham began her career in 1989 as a parole officer and worked with specialized caseloads for sex offender supervision in Texas. In 1997 Ms. Latham was promoted to work as a Trainer at the Parole Training Academy responsible for training new parole officer sand providing in-service training for existing parole officers. Ms. Latham promoted to a Program Administrator position responsible for developing policies and procedures related to the supervision of sex offenders and providing technical assistance to those working a sex offender caseload. Ms. Latham served on the Interagency Committee for the Council on Sex Offender Treatment and in 2001 was selected as the Executive Director of the Council on Sex Offender Treatment, which oversaw the civil commitment program at that time. Ms. Latham retired from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a Sex Offender Program Supervisor in 2014. In January 2015, Ms. Latham began her current position with the Texas Civil Commitment Office Ms. Latham holds a Bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University.

Jessica Marsh is the General Counsel of the Texas Civil Commitment Office, responsible for managing all of the agency’s legal affairs.The Texas Civil Commitment Office is the state agency that is mandated to provide supervision and treatment to civilly committed sex offenders in the State of Texas. Ms. Marsh started her career in criminal justice working with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office Public Integrity Unit. In 2010, Ms. Marsh moved on to work in the Open Records Division of the Office of the Attorney General. In 2012, Ms. Marsh began working for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as an Assistant General Counsel in the Litigation Support Division. In that role, Ms. Marsh managed complex constitutional litigation for TDCJ including claims regarding conditions of confinement and religious practices for inmates. In June 2014, Ms. Marsh began her current position as the General Counsel for the Office of Violent Sex Offender Management, now called the Texas Civil Commitment Office. Ms. Marsh is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Texas School Of Law.

Marsha McLane is the Executive Director of the Texas Civil Commitment Office (TCCO). She has over 40 years of experience working in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Ms. McLane has extensive experience working with the Texas Legislature and several offender programs, parolees and criminal justice issues. Just prior to becoming the Executive Director for the TCCO, she worked for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Prior to that, she worked as Director of the Criminal Justice Oversight Committee, Director of the Committee for Oversight and Management of the Texas Youth Commission, and Policy Director for the Chairman of the Corrections Committee. Ms. McLane has also consulted and provided program auditing services to the Council on Sex Offender Treatment. Ms. McLane retired from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Her career at TDCJ began as a parole officer. After various manager level positions, she ended her career at TDCJ as Director of Contract Monitoring, responsible for the procurement and monitoring of various secure and non-secure facilities and offender programs. Ms. McLane holds a Bachelor’s degree from Kent State University, a Master’s degree from the University of North Texas and is a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor.