Former Washington County probation officer administers Ohio court
His father was Washington’s police chief, and his great-uncle was administrative judge of Belmont County, Ohio, so it was only natural that Greg Thomas Jr. would choose either law enforcement or criminal justice for a career, or, as it turned out, some of each.
In his position as court administrator in Morrow County, Ohio, Thomas is also director of both the juvenile and adult probation departments.
The seat of Morrow County is Mt. Gilead, Ohio, between Columbus and Mansfield, Ohio, and comparable in size to Greene County.
Thomas and staffers from Morrow County Juvenile Court recently presented a seminar called, “No Money, No Resources, No Problem: Overcoming Programmatic Barriers in Rural Communities” that was attended by nearly 100 representatives from Ohio courts, treatment centers and placement facilities.
With a staff of about 15, how does Thomas do more with less? Source of funding is one area. Instead of money from a county budget, “We have a real knack to write and get state and federal grants,” Thomas said. Approximately 75 percent of the probation services department funding comes from grants.
“And, I have every employee cross-trained to do other positions,” Thomas continued. “A probation officer in Morrow County may be doing probation work for the first few hours (of a day) and then do bailiff duties for a judge.
“One of my clerks is a backup bailiff. We pride ourselves in running very lean. Every decision we make, we make with fiscal accountability.
“We’ve actually changed some aspects of how we do our business. “We’re working closer with treatment providers. All of my probation officers are certified to do cognitive behavior therapy with the offenders.”
As of late spring, Morrow County Court has about 600 pending civil and criminal cases. Thomas said Morrow County is comparable in size to Greene County, with populations hovering around 35,000. Just as Interstate 79 bisects Greene, Morrow includes I-71, which, Thomas said, “brings a lot our numbers to the courts here.”
Thomas, a graduate of Trinity High School and Frostburg (Md.) State University, began his career in field as a temporary probation officer in the Washington County juvenile probation office for a woman taking maternity leave.
After a stint with Coca-Cola in sales, Thomas said, “I liked it but I loved the criminal justice field and the judiciary,” so he returned to the Washington County Juvenile Probation Office as a full-timer, working in several positions, including court investigative officer, field officer and, after a few years, supervisor of the Leader program and court intake department through 2014.
Thomas said of juvenile court in Morrow County, “There are always youth who re-offend, but the premise should be that every youth may be rehabilitated. Some youth need to be placed outside the home or in a diversion program.”
Morrow County Court, which has two elected judges plus another pair of “visiting” or senior judges, handles about 700 civil and criminal cases in a year.
The Morrow County Court of Common Pleas is unique in that it is the only one in Ohio where two judges oversee all court divisions, including general, juvenile, probate and domestic relations.
Court administrators in Pennsylvania oversee the offices of magisterial district judges, but those in Ohio do not.
“We do not have district judges here,” Thomas said. Voters instead choose municipal court judges.
In Ohio, Common Pleas Court judges are elected to six-year terms and they run for re-election, not retention. Judges in Pennsylvania who run for retention in 10-year terms do not face opponents on the ballot, just a “yes” or “no” vote.
The son of Greg and Christy Thomas, Greg Thomas Jr. and his wife, Marci Hunt Thomas, live in Mt. Gilead. They are the parents of twin sons, Dylan and Cody, and daughter, Brianna.