I’ve been a probation officer for a little over 11 years. Anybody have any questions for me?
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How bad is your case load?
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Big city or suburban or rural?
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Are you assigned cases based on a certain type of crime? i.e., some P.O.'s only get sex crimes or white collar crimes, etc.
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Do you carry a weapon? If so, is it required?
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Do you find yourself worried that convicts you are supervising ( proper word? ) will find out where you live, involve themselves in your personal life, be a threat of some kind, etc. ?
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What is the best thing about the job?
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What is the worst thing about the job?
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Is it a Civil Service position? Federal, State, City, County, Town ?
What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen on the job?
What’s your relationship with the cops? Do they look down on you, or is there general respect all around?
Probation officer vs. parole officer. Difference?
How do you refrain from slapping idjits upside the head? I’m sure that you run into more than your fair share of idjits in your job.
I just went out of town. What are you going to do about it?
Do they all where that leg bracelet thingy?
**1. How bad is your case load? **
It’s pretty big. 200-225. Much too large to allow me to do what I would consider to be the best job I’m capable of doing.
2. Big city or suburban or rural?
Suburban. We’re right next to a large city, and a little less than half our clients actually live in said city.
3. Are you assigned cases based on a certain type of crime? i.e., some P.O.'s only get sex crimes or white collar crimes, etc.
In the adult division, where I work, we have a team that supervises only sex offenders, a team that supervises all the alcohol and drug related offenses, and a team that supervises all the rest. I am on the team that supervises all the rest; in other words, non-alcohol and drug related cases. About half my cases are violent, assault and battery/domestic battery, and the rest is mostly theft, burglary, robbery, and very minor misdemeanors like leaving the scene of an accident.
I should note that while my cases are non-alcohol and drug related in name, in actuality most of them are alcohol or drug related. If you get drunk and beat your wife, you’ll be charged with domestic battery, which is considered non-alcohol and drug even though the alcohol was obviously a factor.
4. Do you carry a weapon? If so, is it required?
It’s not required. Some do, some don’t. I don’t because I work in a secure building with metal detectors.
5. Do you find yourself worried that convicts you are supervising ( proper word? ) will find out where you live, involve themselves in your personal life, be a threat of some kind, etc. ?
It’s a worry, but it’s never happened. My very common name gives me a measure of anonymity; there are like 75 of me in the phone book. I know of one incident in my department in the last 11 years where someone got their officer’s home number and called them.
6. What is the best thing about the job?
The benefits. Outstanding insurance and a four day work week. Also my co-workers are great people.
7. What is the worst thing about the job?
When aspects of my job are dictated by politicians who have no interest in rehabilitation, but are just posturing for the electorate.
8. Is it a Civil Service position? Federal, State, City, County, Town?
I work for the county.
I once went to search a guy’s house, and discovered that he had about 800 guns in it. He had it set up so that there was literally no spot anywhere in the house where he was not within arm’s reach of a gun.
We have a very good relationship with the county sheriff’s office. They are required by law to maintain the sex offender registry, and since most of the sex offenders are also on probation, there is a lot of overlap in our duties. There are officers from our department out in the field with sheriff’s deputies every day checking up on sex offenders. Also, the cops like us because we can search peoples’ houses without a warrant. They call us all the time and ask us to search houses if they have a tip or a suspicion but not enough to get a warrant. As to whether they look down on us, I don’t know. I’ve never felt that they do.
Not really. In my state, probation officers work for the county, parole officers work for the state. That’s really the only difference. In my county, there are about 4,000 people on probation, and 25-30 on parole. If a judge puts a person on probation, then the judge gets to keep control of the case while the person on probation. In other words, if the person violates probation, the judge decides what the punishment will be. If the person is on parole, the judge has no say, it’s up to the parole board. Since the judges want to keep control of the case, they virtually always sentence the person to probation.
True, but there are lots of very nice people too.
With the idjits, restraint is difficult. 
Thanks for starting this thread!
What is your success rate…in other words, do you have repeat offenders more or do you have more folks who learn from their mistakes and never go through the system again?
Leaving town is not a violation. Leaving the state is.
Not if they’re on my caseload. That’s a separate agency called Community Corrections. They run the home detention (AKA that leg bracelet thingy) and work release program.
There is a brand new type of leg bracelet thingy that is just now catching on. It monitors your sweat for signs that you’ve been drinking alcohol. If it detects alcohol, it lets your probation officer know that you’ve been drinking. This is becoming a popular sanction for DUI offenders, but as I don’t have any of those on my caseload, I don’t know much about the system.
You’re welcome!
That depends a lot on the crime. We get a LOT of one-time DUI offenders who never come back into the system. Some crimes seem to draw more than their share of repeat offenders. Someone convicted of theft will probably steal again. It’s pretty rare to see someone convicted of domestic battery that doesn’t have a prior criminal record, usually alcohol related. Then there are the lifers, maybe 10% of my caseload, who you can count on to get arrested 5 or 6 times a year like clockwork.
Nailing down an actual “success rate” is really difficult, beginning with the difficulty in defining “success.” I can tell you that 75-80% of people placed on probation successfully complete probation without a violation, if that counts as a success.
So what happens when I leave the state?
If I find out about it, I get a warrant for your arrest. I don’t go chasing people across the country, if that’s what you’re getting at. People generally come to the attention of the authorities sooner or later, and as long as you’re still in the US, you’re going to get picked up on that warrant and extradited back.
Do you ever consider the financial cost of pulling in someone off the street, and sending them back in if it’s under 90 days from their MR (Mandatory Release) date?
I’ve had a rash recently of very costly short-timers who got revoked. one got hospitalized 3 days after re-incarceration, and now needs hemodialysis 3 times a week. He’ll be discharged after a total of 21 days in prison, having cost the state in excess of $150K.
I know some guys need to be taken off the street, but I’ve seen a lot of money spent on guys with really, really short revocations.
(My cousin’s wife is a Parole and Probation agent. The rest of the family’s eyes glaze over when we get together to tell work stories. 
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I thought parole was for people coming out of jail, and probation was in lieu of jail.
So…what do you actually do? Do you interview them in-depth on a weekly or monthly basis? Do you assist them with finding a job? How about the people who are habitual criminals? Do you do different processes with those guys?
Why don’t you work a 5-day week? Is it a budgetary thing?
Our states must have really different systems, because the chances of a situation like you’re describing coming up here are virtually zero. I’m certain I’ve never supervised anyone with only 90 days in prison hanging over their head. My cases usually have maybe 3 to 10 years in prison hanging over them. The way you’re describing it leads me to believe that offenders are earning credit towards their sentence while they are on probation or parole, so if they get revoked at the very end of the probation term they only have a short amount of time left. That’s not how it works here. You get no credit for the time you spend on probation. So if your sentence is three years in prison suspended to probation, and you serve 2 years and 364 days on probation and then violate on the last day, you still go to prison for three years.
I have gotten into some pretty ferocious disagreements with the jail staff about the cost of keeping people there. For example, the jail hates it when we incarcerate pregnant women. But when the woman is using meth or whatever, they just have to bite the bullet. I once kept an anorexic in the jail (actually she was at the hospital, and the sheriff had to pay to have her guarded) because she was under 80 pounds and I was pretty sure she was about to die. They were not happy about that one either. (Note: when I say “I” put someone in jail or “I” kept someone in jail, what I really mean is that I convinced the judge to do that. I technically work for the judges.)
Now, on misdemeanor cases, it is possible to have really short suspended sentences, but those would be served in the county jail, and not in prison.
Not here. Here, probation is used for both situations. The only time someone gets parole here is if the judge doesn’t include probation as part of the sentence. That doesn’t happen very often, at least not in my county.