Linda White, adjunct professor in the department of psychology and philosophy at SHSU, received an appointment by Gov. Rick Perry to the Texas State Council for Interstate Adult Offender Supervision in December 2002. White is one of three to receive the appointment.
The Texas State Council for Interstate Adult Offender Supervision is an advisory group that handles the interstate supervision of offenders on probation or parole who are allowed to transfer their supervision to another state.
If a person commits and is convicted of a crime while visiting Texas and is not a legal resident of Texas he would be allowed to return to his state of residency to complete his term of probation or parole without penalty.
The council works with the other state to ensure that supervision and probation requirements are met.
Before the assembly of the council, offenders who left the state while on probation or parole were in violation and penalized. Now, the state of residency can assist Texas in making sure offenders meet their probationary or parole requirements.
White’s term with the council will be complete on Feb. 1, 2003, according to the Office of the Gov. Rick Perry Web site.
White’s knowledge of victims and their offenders makes her an asset to the council. Among the council’s many goals are to ignite public awareness and safety as well as aid in the rehabilitation of offenders.
In a story featured in The Huntsville Item, White said she became interested in the criminal justice system after being troubled by the violence in society.
“I became more curious as to how the system works and I began to educate myself,” she said.
White currently teaches Introduction to Psychology, and Death and Dying at SHSU. She also spends much of her time volunteering her services to various victim and offender organizations.
White is a volunteer mediator with the Victim Offender Mediation Dialogue program. The purpose of this program is to provide victims of violent crime the opportunity to have a face-to-face meeting with their offender in a secure, safe environment in order to facilitate a healing, recovery process.
She also serves on the board of New Directions, a treatment center and halfway house. Before becoming a professor at SHSU, she taught social psychology in two Texas prisons.
White received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at SHSU and her doctoral degree from Texas A&M University.