LCCJAB Departmental Presentation, Detailed Review Lebanon County Adult Probation & Parole April 21 st, 2009

Transcription

1 LCCJAB Departmental Presentation, Detailed Review Lebanon County Adult Probation & Parole April 21 st, 2009 Presenter: Sally A. Barry Lebanon County Chief Adult Probation & Parole Officer General Information: Sally A. Barry, Presenter Lebanon County Adult Probation/Parole Department Mission Statement Our Mission is to provide for the safety of the community through effective supervision of offenders and to enforce Court ordered rule and regulations in order to assist offenders to successfully adjust to a crime-free lifestyle by provided positive and proactive guidance for the offender. The Probation Department currently consists of 36 employees. The employees in this department are court appointed, which means that they work at the pleasure of the President Judge of Lebanon County. Therefore, President Judge Tylwalk has the authority to hire, promote, etc. anyone in the Adult Probation Department. There are primarily two styles of supervision across the United States: Office-based Supervision and Community-based Supervision. o Office-based Supervision generally involves a client that is only seen in the office of the Probation Officer. o Community-based Supervision involves the Officer going out into the community and working with an Offender s employer, seeing the offender at home, and working with the treatment community based on the needs of the client. Lebanon uses at least for the past five-and-a-half years a more community-based style of supervision to oversee the offenders on Probation or Parole. Efforts have been and continue to be made to encourage the Officers to use the strategies of community-based supervision when working with clients. This is important because: o Although there is no magic-bullet type of supervision, community-based supervision has been found to improve the outcomes of offenders in the system (reduce overall recidivism). 19 Of the Staff at Probation directly supervise adult parole offenders in Lebanon County. [The Organizational Chart is available upon request.] o The Administrative Supervisor oversees Staff who, for example, conduct intakes for individuals who are going to be supervised after being released from incarceration. This part of the Staff also manages the transfer cases. Page 1 of 5

2 Transfer cases usually occur when the offender was sentenced in Lebanon County, but the person resides outside of Lebanon or even outside of the state of Pennsylvania. The physical supervision of the case, therefore, occurs elsewhere. If the offender makes a mistake, however, the case is brought before a judge in Lebanon County. The two Probation Officer Aides generally supervise 160 cases each. Even when a case is a transfer case, the Fines & Costs associated with the case are still collected by Lebanon County. There are three Pre-Sentence Investigation (PSI) Officers in the Probation Department. These Officers create reports for the judges which gives the judge a basic picture of the offender and his/her background, what his/her needs are, etc. The PSI is used to assist the judge so that he/she can be aware of what the sentencing options are under the law for the crimes the offender has committed. Knowing the range of options for sentencing is important. o After the court orders fees, fines, costs, and/or restitution, the Probation Office is charged with assessing and collecting this money. This money is collected from those cases which are on active supervision. In 2007, the Probation Office assumed the responsibility of also collecting delinquent fines & costs for offenders who are on no longer on active supervision, but who still owe the county of Lebanon money. The physical collection of the money occurs in the Adult Probation Office. o The most visible part of the Staff are those out in the Field. Currently, there are 17 Staff who actively supervise offenders in the community. Specialized caseloads have been created during the past five years in an effort to provide more customized supervision for the Offenders. An example of a Specialized Caseloads is the Mental Health Caseload which was established approximately three years ago. As a result, MH/MR/EI identified a Criminal Justice Liaison Caseworker to work closely with the Probation Mental Health Officer to structure the best environment(s) for the supervision and/or treatment of the offenders with a more severe mental health diagnosis. At any given time, this caseload ranges from offenders. Another example of this is the Sex Offender Intensive Caseload Officer. This position was established within the last two years and this officer works very closely with the Sex Offender treatment providers to the point that officer even attends counseling sessions and specialized training to be better equipped and more knowledgeable when working with this population. An Intensive Female Caseload Officer is also being created. This Officer will work with the Maternal Assistance Program (MAP) and the Community Action Partnership (CAP) to get the intensive females involved with support programming, educational programming, etc. The ultimate goal will be to break the cycle of recidivism for these women. Page 2 of 5

3 In addition to the intensive caseloads, there is also an Electronic Monitoring Officer. The remaining Officers caseloads are separated by jurisdiction. A few officers are assigned to the City, while others are assigned to an area within the County. These geographic assignments are mainly given to save Officers time. Based on the size of Lebanon County, it would be ill-advised to have officers with cases at each geographic side of Lebanon. This philosophy works well regarding time management. One of the goals of the Probation Office is to ensure that its Officers get out into the community. Officers have a duty day once a week, are required to be in court for hearings regarding their clients (to document sentencing), and participate in training for 40 hours per year (the number of training hours is set by the Pennsylvania Board of Probation & Parole). The rest of their time can be spent working on the cases of their clients. There is a cliché that Probation Officers wear two hats: one of Law Enforcement (all of the officers are armed, most carry Tasers, are trained in self-defense, Officers conduct their own arrests ) and the other of Counselor. The hat worn during the day is dictated by the client that is being seen. The Probation Office works with many agencies including those not directly related to the Criminal Justice Field (such as MAP, CAP, etc.). There is also a great deal of collaboration with employers in the community. Departmentally, the working relationships with the Offices of MH/MR/EI and LCCDAA were cited as of great importance to the work of the Probation Office. The Chief thanked these two department heads specifically for their with the Probation department. The Chief also indicated that it is a privilege to work in a county that has good interdepartmental relationships across the board. Questions: When is someone on Probation or Parole sent to jail? o It always depends on the situation in the case being examined and the person or people involved with it. There is some discretion when deciding whether or not to send a person to jail; the Officers make EVERY attempt to treat and work with a client before jail is used. Matters of community safety are always considered when working with clients. What are the weaknesses of the Office? o The counties surrounding Lebanon (Lancaster, Berks, Dauphin, etc.) have higher starting salaries, and occasionally officers are attracted to those counties as well the State Board of Probation and Parole, the PA State Police, etc. purely for monetary reasons. Page 3 of 5

4 o A weakness, then, is the time that is needed to train new Probation Officers. This is extremely time-consuming. Many issues surrounding Probation and Parole are complex and ways to handle these situations can only be learned through experience. o This can be problematic for the county because green Staff can open the door to libelous situations. To ensure this does not occur, some new Staff members at Probation are not permitted to go out into the field alone. The new Staff members must be properly supervised and trained before being allowed to independently exercise this portion of their duties. o Another weakness, one that is being examined by the Mental Health Committee, is where to go with offenders with a mental health diagnosis who are being released into the community. Anyone on active supervision with a mental health diagnosis is the responsibility of the Probation Department. Another problematic population (in regards to finding housing) is finding a place for clients who are convicted sex offenders. What are the strengths of the Office? o The Officers. The Chief is proud to work with every one of them. o The working relationships with the departments in the County. Collaboration and cooperation of these departments is essential to providing effective supervision to clients, especially those with specific case needs such as mental health or drug and alcohol treatment. o Preparing supervision histories for the judges so that they know the background in why a proposed probation/parole violation case is being sought is a strength of this office. However, just because the supervision history is well prepared does not mean the person with the violation case will end up in jail. Why would a Probation Officer choose not to carry a Taser? o The decision was made that, if an officer chooses to carry this weapon, he/she must be hit (shocked) with it before he/she is allowed to carry it. An officer choosing not be hit with the Taser is not permitted to carry a Taser. Where do our Probation Officers stand in regards to caseload size when considering what recommended caseload size is? o There is no real standard for the optimal size of a particular caseload. The State Parole Board has a great number of standards that they come to examine/audit every year; caseload size is not officially one of them. An ideal number might be 55, but is manageable. o The Field Officers caseload size is better than it has ever been in this county. Years ago, an average caseload might have been 260 clients. In this group, every type of client could be found (those with a mental health diagnosis, sex offenders, etc.). Now, the Office Page 4 of 5

5 works with the basics of handing a case to an Officer and simply telling the Officer to supervise the client. The Field Officers caseloads usually range from clients. Do you foresee a solution to the issue of finding a place for those offenders who are incarcerated who present challenges to the resources in the community? o To clarify, only those people who have a reason to be in jail are in jail. The Probation Office strives not to keep someone incarcerated or to put someone in jail simply because he/she does not have an approved parole address. The Officers work diligently to find an appropriate location in which to place an individual while he/she is on supervision. o The challenge arises from a case with an offender who, as an example, has served his/her time in prison, has not committed any new crimes, is a sex offender, who also has a mental health issue, and who can be violent. There are not many residences that will take a person with this background. o To deal with this, many counties have well-established Mental Health Courts; housing (different types of varying structure and support) models and methods are also used. Lebanon County has housing for a handful of offenders with a mental health diagnosis as well as some programming, but and the Mental Health Committee is examining methods to track data on this population (basically conducting a needs-based assessment) current levels of support options simply may not be extensive enough. The Mental Health Committee is working to gather data to better understand what can be done that truly fits the needs of this community. o The financial burden placed on the county and court systems from Offenders with a mental health diagnosis is significant even if simply one person continues to cycle through the criminal justice system. There must be a consensus from officials that tackling this issue (possibly) by spending money up front will save money in the future. Again, the amount of money that can be saved is not known at this time. Evidence-Based Best-Practice programs have been examined and local data will be gathered to ensure that the program selected to support truly fits the needs of our local community. For more information regarding the Lebanon County Adult Probation & Parole Office, please go to the Lebanon County Website at: and click Departments on the left-hand side of the screen. Page 5 of 5