NCJ Number
138817
Date Published
1992
Length
51 pages
Annotation
Five highly experienced and seasoned probation executives share their thoughts and experiences about managing probation during times of fiscal constraint.
Abstract
These probation executives project that if the directors of probation agencies continue to believe, manage, and act as if resource scarcity is a passing phase for probation, their agencies will be regarded as irrelevant by 2000. They propose key action steps that probation executives committed to managing scarcity must take. These action steps are summarized in several categories: classification/information systems, external relations, human resource management, and revenue enhancement. Action steps include community service and/or restitution that could be the only standard condition of probation for minimum-risk cases; probation managers recognition that effective external relations are essential to the success of their organization and accordingly must emphasize action, involvement, interdependence, and outreach; cutback strategies that should not be implemented without attention to their effects on line staff; and brokering services to other appropriate agencies to reduce expenditures within the probation department becoming standard practice.