The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is Triple Crown Accredited!

WELCOME FROM COLONEL PREVITERA

Welcome to the Department of Detention Services, an accredited 4,190 bed jail system commanded by Colonel James Previtera.  The Department of Detention Services is comprised of two major facilities and a work release center. The department provides processing and detention services for all law enforcement agencies in Hillsborough County. Additionally, it furnishes staff for the secure component of the Juvenile Assessment Center, a centralized receiving, processing, and intervention facility for adolescents taken into custody by law enforcement officers. 

Colonel Jim Previtera assumed command of the Department of Detention Services on October 6, 2008.  He first joined the Sheriff’s Office in 2005 as the head of the Training Division and Recruitment and Screening Bureau. Colonel Previtera came to the Sheriff’s Office from the United States Secret Service, where he served as a Special Agent in the Vice Presidential Protection Division. Colonel Previtera also served as a member of the training staff at the Secret Service Training Center in Beltsville, Maryland, and as an agent in the Tampa Field Office.

Colonel Previtera began his law enforcement career in 1986 as a deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and held several patrol and investigative assignments. He was assigned as a corporal in the Special Operations Division when he departed for the Secret Service in 1997. Colonel Previtera has also served as an instructor for the Southeastern Public Safety Institute and the Florida Sheriff’s Association.

Colonel Previtera holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology from St. Leo College and is a graduate of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the U.S. Secret Service James J. Rowley Training Center and the U.S.D.A. Leadership Training Course.

The department provides processing and detention services for all law enforcement agencies in Hillsborough County. Additionally, it furnishes the secure component for the Juvenile Assessment Center, a centralized receiving, processing and intervention facility for adolescents taken into custody by law enforcement officers. The department also supervises a day reporting program for offenders ordered to community service. In March 2005, the Department of Detention Services implemented a global positioning system (GPS) monitoring program, of persons releasing on their own recognizance, to alleviate the daily overcrowding in the jails. In addition to these duties, detention deputies, working as court bailiffs, provide a safe and secure system for Hillsborough County.