Pro Tip:
The responsibilities of a probation officer have changed drastically over the years. When I became a probation officer in 1996, my number one job responsibility was to protect the community. That basically meant when people on probation supervision violated the terms of their court supervision, we reacted to their behavior by incarcerating them or sending them to treatment to fix them. Research has proven our thinking was flawed.
Fast forward to the present, we now know effective supervision can and will be achieved by centering our attention on the root causes of criminogenic behavior and implementing evidence-based practices. In doing so, we must retrain ourselves on what protecting the community really means. In simple terms, we need to focus on why people commit crimes, and not center our attention on the reaction to unacceptable behavior. Implementing evidence-based practices will help us do that. If we can successfully understand why people commit crimes, create a tailored success plan, and provide appropriate services and interventions, we will ultimately protect the community more effectively.
Implementation of evidence-based practices is a daunting task. It cannot be achieved in a short amount of time nor is it something probation officers can do on their own. It’s something the whole criminal justice system must work on together. I’ve spent a lot of time meeting with stakeholders to get buy-in to these new concepts. While we still have a long way to go, we have made huge improvements. I am proud of our achievements thus far and look forward to what this is going to look like in years to come.
My message to you is “stay the course.” There will be many obstacles and bumps in the road that will need to be overcome. Making mistakes along the way is to be expected. When you start seeing the success of the people we supervise, my hope is you will know all the work we’ve put into evidence-based practices is worth it because the benefits are twofold: evidence-based practices protect the community and improve outcomes for people with justice involvement.