Sharing Information Across Departments to Guide Pretrial Decisions

Go Back

Michael Laughlin holds a Master’s in Education/Counseling, and worked over three decades in local, state, and Federal government roles before transitioning to serve now as a Courts and Justice Software Implementation Consultant at Tyler Technologies. He is the immediate past President of the Board for the Texas Association of Pretrial Services where he still actively serves on the Professional Development Committee. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor-Supervisor, Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor, and nationally Certified Pretrial Release and Pretrial Diversion Professional, and Global Career Development Facilitator-Instructor. He spent 10 years managing treatment programs in the public and private sector before serving 22 years as Senior U.S. Pretrial/Probation Officer and Treatment/Workforce Specialist for the U.S. District Courts of the Northern District of Texas. There he managed high-risk/needs field caseloads, while building and training interdisciplinary, specialized treatment/reentry teams and programs within their 100-county jurisdiction. Mr. Laughlin has many of counseling, training, corrections officer/specialist, and career guidance experience in several settings and capacities. He collaboratively led complex, interdisciplinary, research and data-informed system reforms, some of which became part of national models. Following his time in the Federal Courts, he served 8 years as a Jail Diversion Manager and Pretrial Manager in Dallas, Texas, and Criminal Justice Manager in Tarrant County, Texas. During that time, he also served on the Texas Pretrial Association Board of Directors, and Texas Criminal Justice and Justice Administration State Planning Workgroup helping guide and navigate local, state, and national criminal justice system programs, funding, training, legislation, system coordination, and policy reform. His whole career has involved diligently promoting, training, and leveraging technology to better automate processes, share data, improve collaboration, and increase staff effectiveness while improving Courts/Justice operations, capacity, and outcomes.