State of Maryland

A Social Worker Advanced, Criminal Justice is the advanced level of professional social work providing expert clinical and therapeutic or forensic social work services in either a criminal justice or indigent defense environment.  Employees in this classification that work in a criminal justice environment provides clinical and therapeutic services to clients who have demonstrated a need for rehabilitative intervention because of behavioral factors or personality disorders and co-existing mental health, health, substance abuse or other social adjustment factors.   Employees in this classification that work in an indigent defense environment provides forensic social work services, including mitigation to clients charged with crimes or delinquent offenses and create defense strategies with Assistant Public Defenders for the legal disposition of criminal or delinquent cases.  Employees in this classification do not supervise other positions but may act as mentors to lower-level Social Workers, Criminal Justice.

Employees in this classification receive general supervision from a Social Work Regional Supervisor, Criminal Justice or a Social Work Manager, Criminal Justice or a District Public Defender, Division Chief or designee when assigned with the Office of the Public Defender.  Employees generally work in juvenile facilities, other criminal justice or juvenile services environments, or public defender offices.  Employees are frequently exposed to hazardous situations and must exercise vigilance and sound judgment when working with clients.  Employees in this class may be required to work evenings and weekends.

Positions in this classification are evaluated by using the classification job evaluation methodology.  The use of this method involves comparing the assigned duties and responsibilities of a position to the job criteria found in the Nature of Work and Examples of Work sections of the class specification.

The Social Worker Advanced, Criminal Justice is differentiated from the Social Worker II, Criminal Justice in that the Social Worker Advanced, Criminal Justice provides expert clinical and therapeutic social work services to the most demanding clients in need of intensive rehabilitative counseling and may mentor lower-level social workers while the Social Worker II, Criminal Justice performs the full range of duties and responsibilities under general supervision.  The Social Worker Advanced, Criminal Justice is differentiated from the Social Work Supervisor, Criminal Justice in that the Social Work Supervisor, Criminal Justice has supervisory responsibility for Casework Specialists, Social Workers I and II, Criminal Justice.

Applies social work values, principles and techniques to assist clients to confront their personality disorders including anti-social behaviors and any co-existing health, mental health substance abuse or other social adjustment factor;

Conducts the most complex therapeutic counseling with the most demanding client populations, such as clients who are profoundly disabled due to mental illness, head trauma or other developmental disability, terminally ill or suicidal, or clients who exhibit extreme personality-disordered or anti-social behaviors or clients who are under institutional segregation controls or in a defense situation;

Acts as a mentor to other social workers and social work interns, by providing guidance in specialized areas of group and individual counseling and may provide guidance in case management or provide guidance in creating a defense strategy;

Provides psycho-social assessments and remediation plans and makes treatment recommendations;

Completes required institutional or court reports and recommendations;

May conduct therapeutic group sessions with a cognitive behavioral theory base to remediate clients’ personality disorders, including anti-social behaviors;

May participate in multidisciplinary treatment teams;

May conduct support groups to address social and emotional issues of special concern to clients, such as grief, pregnancy, parenting skills and domestic violence;

May maintain special files related to confidential social work interactions with clients in a correctional facility;

May provide case management services and act as liaison to community organizations to develop and coordinate after-care plans for special needs clients scheduled for transitional services for clients in various stages of the adjudication process;

May represent the department at meetings with other government agencies, community organizations and public interest groups;

May coordinate training agenda and present in-service training to other social work staff for the purpose of introducing new protocols and enhancing morale;

May design, develop and field test new treatment protocols and may assist in the development of program policies and procedures;

May assist assistant public defenders with developing a higher-level defense strategy for clients charged with criminal or delinquent offenses;

May provide forensic social work services including mitigation to clients charged with criminal or delinquent offenses; May provide expert testimony in court proceedings;

Performs other related duties.

1. Employees are required to meet mandatory standards for continuing education as determined by the hiring department. Employees who fail to obtain the required continuing education credits shall be subject to disciplinary action including demotion, suspension and dismissal.

2. Employees of the Department of Juvenile Services must complete an approved training program in group counseling techniques.

3. Employees of the Department of Juvenile Services may be required to complete the Level I Counseling course certified by the Maryland AIDS Professional Education Center.

4. Employees of the Department of Juvenile Services must qualify for and successfully complete the Entry Level Training Academy operated by the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions.

Class Descriptions are broad descriptions covering groups of positions used by various State departments and agencies.  Position descriptions maintained by the using department or agency specifically address the essential job functions of each position. 

Class Descriptions for Professional Service classes provide information about the Nature of Work, Examples of Work, General Requirements and Acknowledgements.  The Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities; Minimum Education and Experience Requirements; Special Requirements; and recruitment and testing procedures are set by the using agency.

This is a Professional Service classification in the State Personnel Management System. All positions in this classification are Professional Service positions. Some positions in Professional Service classifications may be designated Special Appointment in accordance with the State Personnel and Pensions Article, Section 6-405, Annotated Code of Maryland.

This classification is not assigned to a bargaining unit, as indicated by the designation of S (Supervisor), M (Manager), T (Agency Head), U (Board or Commission Member), W (Student), X (Used by Agency or Excluded by Executive Order), or Z (Confidential).  As provided by State Personnel and Pensions Article, Section 3-102, special appointment, temporary, contractual, supervisory, managerial and confidential employees are excluded collective bargaining.  Additionally, certain executive branch agencies are exempt from collective bargaining and all positions in those agencies are excluded from collective bargaining.