Many residents may be unfamiliar with offices set up on Douglas Avenue by the Department of Corrections. It is housed in the fairly new brick building next to Herrington’s Flower Shop.

The Escambia County Community Corrections was established in 2003 under the prompting of Judge Bradley Byrne.

Tiffany Caylor is the assistant director of Escambia County Community Corrections and the Court of Referral Program.

She and her fellow worker, Matthew Rabren those who have drug or alcohol related charges. Each are required to go through the program as part of their sentence.

“We see around 100 people who are in the system right now,” Caylor said. “We cover all Escambia County and help out with Conecuh and Baldwin Counties, as they do not have a program.

The department tries to maintain a good working relationship with all agencies, Caylor said.

“The Department of Corrections uses community correction programs to target available resources to a community that has affectively and efficiently developed a plan to identify those offenders who can be diverted from Alabama Department of Corrections and be safely monitored in the local community under an appropriate level of supervision,” she said as an explanation of the program.

Clients sentenced to the Community Corrections program are put on a schedule for drug tests or for an interview with Caylor or Rabren.

“I love my job,” said Caylor. “We have some successes and every time we do, it makes it all worthwhile.

“We also have around 385 clients in court referrals,” she said. “This is all mandated by the Alabama State Department of Corrections.”

The department’s director is Jerry Caylor, who is no relationship to Tiffany Caylor. She said that he is good to work with.

“Jerry is a good person for the job,” she said. “He is a compassionate person, and he cares about the clients. He is a good boss and if we have any questions, he is there for us.”

In October Mr. Caylor was awarded the “William ‘Bill’ Chapman Memorial Award for his commitment to training of court referral personnel as a director. This was presented by the administrative office of courts, Rich Hobson.

“Our office does not receive money from the public,” she added. “We are self-sufficient and provide this program with no cost to the citizens of Escambia County. I

“Our successes are those who are ready to admit they have a problem and try to do something about it,” she said. “Once they do that, I see them make the turn-around. Not everyone does, but we have success stories all the time.”

Caylor is Brewton native and graduated from T.R. Miller High School in 1997. She graduated not knowing what she wanted to make her career. She said she did think about becoming a nurse, but that never came to be.

She attended Jefferson Davis Community College and earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Faulker University in Montgomery.

“I hadn’t thought I was going to make this a career, but I met my husband, Patrick, at school, and he was a major influence on my decision,” she said. “He also earned a degree in criminal justice and now is employed by the Brewton Police Department.”

The two were married in 2009 and now have two children, Allie, who is 14, and Bryson, who is five. They live in the country and Allie is a member of the 4-H Club.

“I am kept very busy,” Caylor said. “I keep up with all the activities the kids are involved in and try not to miss anything they do. I don’t have much time to devote to outside activities, but I am a member of the Kiwanis Club.

“I really do like my job and the clients I see,” she added. “We have more successes than failures and that makes it all worthwhile.”