NCJ Number
221438
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 71 Issue: 3 Dated: December 2007 Pages: 30-35
Date Published
December 2007
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This study considers how probation and parole officers describe their concerns related to workloads, so as to increase understanding about how recent trends in caseload growth and standardization of probation/parole conditions have altered the probation/parole experience for officers and offenders.
Abstract
The analysis of open-ended comments revealed three themes: goal ambiguity, concerns about funding, and evidence-based principles. Goal ambiguity pertains to the tension between rehabilitation, punishment, and providing victim and community safety. Concerns about funding relate to limited community resources and budgets, as well as a lack of support from top echelon policymakers, managers, and judges in the face of expanded caseloads. Officers' responses show that they are committed to practices that have been proven effective through evaluation research; however, funding limitations have prevented faithful implementation of proven practices. These survey findings suggest that community corrections agencies must focus on maximizing positive outcomes of offender programs. This requires investing resources in the most cost-effective methods for achieving both community safety and offender rehabilitation. Supervision conditions should be reasonable, realistic, and research-based. These findings were obtained through a Web-based survey of the membership of the American Probation and Parole Association. There were 228 useable responses. The questionnaire was divided into three sections: demographics, workload and caseload allocation, and sex offender and other high-risk supervision. 1 table and 25 references