This was not absent frequent attempts by his father to persuade him to attend Louisiana State University. Dad was partial to LSU, being that Joseph’s older brother had graduated from there; or maybe it was being a fan of Tiger Football, or maybe both!

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While dad rooted for the Tigers, Joseph found that attending Southeastern would prove to be a great experience in education, along with being cultured to the diversity of the local region he would later find himself working in. During the pursuit of his undergraduate degree, Joseph began his work with kids. In 1996, he began his career as an entry level officer with the Florida Parishes Juvenile Justice District’s juvenile detention center. Four short years later, Joseph had worked his way through the ranks and was promoted to the position of Captain. At the age of 26, he was one of the youngest corrections shift supervisors in the state.

 

In 2005, the Justice District aligned itself with the national trend of improving conditions in juvenile justice and detention practices, through evidence-based programming. Joseph and key staff effected a culture change that encompassed a completely different way of working with detained youth; ultimately, setting forth the evolution of the agency from an institutional to therapeutic model. Not long after this transition, Joseph was promoted to Director of Female Services, where he managed programming for the agency’s female population. This included the development and direction of the state’s first long-term placement program for serious and/or habitual offender girls, contracted with Louisiana’s Department of Public Safety and Corrections, Youth Services, Office of Juvenile Justice (DPSC/YS/OJJ).

 

In March of 2016, Joseph was appointed to his current position of Executive Director for the Florida Parishes Juvenile Justice District, becoming the first employee to transition through every rank of the agency. In addition to having responsibility over all of the District’s operations, he remains engaged with the many city and district courts throughout the region as well as various law enforcement agencies, juvenile justice practitioners, and stakeholders both statewide and nationally.

 

Joseph now holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Louisiana State University. His father is smiling down; “Geaux Tigers”! He is also a graduate of the 12-week Dale Carnegie course for Effective Communications and Human Relations and has received its Highest Award for Achievement. As a public speaker, Joseph shares his passion for working with kids, the public, and effecting organizational change. He currently serves as President of the Louisiana Juvenile Detention Association, is a member of the Performance Based Standards Learning Institute’s Board of Directors and is also a member of the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators, where he regularly convenes on a national level with state department heads, to study, discuss, and develop initiatives and best-practices within juvenile justice.

 

Joseph resides in Hammond, LA with his fiancé and two children. He is active in his community as President of the Hammond-Ponchatoula Sunrisers Rotary Club, board member for Tangipahoa Parish Crime Stoppers, and board member for Leadership Tangipahoa. Living in the “Sportsman’s Paradise”, he enjoys hunting and fishing, and is continuously seeking the next physical or athletic challenge.

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The Florida Parishes Juvenile Justice District is a political subdivision of the State of Louisiana, having territorial jurisdiction throughout the 3,700 square miles of the parishes of Livingston, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington. It operates the largest regional juvenile detention center in the state, providing juvenile justice services to a population of more than 600,000 citizens.