Volume 71 Number 3
Probation and Parole Officers Speak Out — Caseload and Workload Allocation
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Matthew DeMichele , M . S . ( A . B . D .) University of Kentucky Council of State Governments American Probation & Parole Association Brian K . Payne , Ph . D . Sociology and Criminal Justice Old Dominion University
Community Corrections Goals in Practice Methods Findings Goal Ambiguity Concerns about Funding Goal Ambiguity Evidence-Based Practices
COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS populations have experienced tremendous growth for the past two decades . The Bureau of Justice Statistics Correctional Survey ( http :// www . ojp . usdoj . gov / bjs / glance / tables / corr2tab . htm ) reveals that probation and parole populations have grown unabated since 1980 . This growth has serious implications for probation and parole agencies regarding how to make caseload and workload decisions . It is important to consider differences between caseload , which is the number of offenders supervised by an officer , and workload , which is the amount of time needed to complete various tasks . While caseload size will grow as offender populations increase , workload per officer is a more stagnant figure , as there are only so many working hours available in each day , week , month , or year for each officer .
These issues related to workload allocation are further complicated by two additional trends in community corrections . Probation was once assigned almost exclusively to relatively low-level offenders who posed little threat to public safety and were mostly in need of pro-social steering ( Petersilia , 1998 ). In an attempt to alleviate jail and prison crowding , however , probation caseloads are being populated with offenders who potentially pose greater community safety threats . This is a point made by Taxman , Shephardson , and Byrne ( 2004 : 3 ) in Tools of the Trade , in which they mention that “ probation rolls increasingly mirror the prison population .” Taxman and her colleagues add that “ more than half of probationers today are convicted felons .” These offenders have more criminogenic needs , as they may be gang members , sex offenders , or domestic violence offenders . As a result , these offenders will require more officer time to provide adequate supervision , treatment , and enforcement of conditions , and hopefully behavior change .
A second trend facing probation and parole agencies is the growth in conditions of supervision . These conditions are often instituted by non-community corrections professionals such as judges ,