She speaks with some experience, and respect from her peers, being named recently as the State of Ohio Detention Officer for 2012. Cox was selected from detention workers at 40 detention facilities.
A Sidney area native, Cox, 29, studied criminal justice at Urbana University and completed an internship with the Shelby County Juvenile Probation Department.
When she saw an ad for a part-time worker at West Central, she jumped at the chance to gain more experience working with juveniles.
West Central Juvenile Detention opened in January 1993. It has 40 staff members and 44 beds to serve juvenile courts in nine jurisdictions.
Kathy Ventura, assistant facility superintendent, nominated Cox for the award.
“Lisa always maintains a positive attitude and leads by example, thus being a superior role model for staff and youth,” she said. Cox was selected based on consistent job performance and being a previous facility staff worker of the year award winner.
At the time she was selected, Cox was a pod leader/correction officer working daily with 12 to 20 youth ages 11-18 years. She was charged with coordinating the group’s movements all day throughout a 12-hour shift.
“You are dealing with their wants, their needs, making sure they get to class, get to their groups, making sure everyone is fed,” Cox said.
Working with youth requires a lot of patience and the ability to deal with different personalities and moods, such as anger issues a lot of the youth are tackling.
She recently left the pod leader job with promotion to a center lieutenant.
In that job, her tasks include running the control room and overseeing the pod leaders. She handles more paperwork and phone calls, monitors group movements in the facility and deals with parents and probation officers.
Cox said she is glad she took the West Central job.
“Some of these kids are really good at heart. It is interesting to see the differences with kids, and hopefully make a difference, maybe say something to cause them to change,” she said.
Cox is married to Jason Cox and has custody of two children.
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