Heavy caseloads, job stress and biases can strain relations between parole and probation officers and their clients, upping offenders’ likelihood of landing back behind bars.
On a more hopeful note, a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that nonjudgmental empathy training helps court-ordered supervision officers feel more emotionally connected to their clients and, arguably, better able to deter them from criminal backsliding.
The findings, published March 29 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show, on average, a 13% decrease in recidivism among the clients of parole and probation officers who participated in the UC Berkeley empathy training experiment.
“If an officer received this empathic training, real-world behavioral outcomes changed for the people they supervised, who, in turn, were less likely to go back to jail,” said study lead and senior author Jason Okonofua, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.
The results are particularly salient in the face of nationwide efforts to reduce prison and jail populations amid a deadly pandemic and other adversities. The U.S. criminal justice system has among the highest rates of recidivism, with approximately two-thirds of incarcerated people rearrested within three years of their release and one-half sent back behind bars.
“The combination of COVID-19 and ongoing criminal justice reforms are diverting more people away from incarceration and toward probation or parole, which is why we need to develop scalable ways to keep pace with this change,” said Okonofua, who has led similar interventions for school teachers to check their biases before disciplining students.
I hope probation/parole officers will get updated training that will emphasize the benefits highlighted in this study.
In Georgia at least, I think it’s a bit more likely that probation and parole were consolidated for supervision purposes, and the officer rating system leaned more toward the parole side where a “successful” officer wasn’t determined by the number of people returned to prison (leading to violations for stupid hyper-technical or conflicting rules).
A good thought and personal tribute to my first parole agent in the 95-7 timeframe. What a wonderful person she was! I was on parole for 15 months, by month 4 our contact was her letting me cook her and hubby Saturday breakfast at Zoms where I’d found employment. She did all the paperwork. I believe she’s with her God now.
I was very blessed to have the probation officer I had. He never saw me as a danger, maybe at first when we met he probably had doubts since I wasn’t the only one he had as a client with a sex offense. However, he never switched me to another officer, I always checked in with him he checked in on me, always asked about how my children and wife were doing as well as what updates I had for him. Even though since my release I have been able to find work and now I work for a Union, he always linked me to places that were hiring. Nowadays you cannot say that(especially as a registered citizen). He never gave me a hard time nor did I put myself in a situation to make him question my program or my responsibilities, we were always professional and respectful one to another. Last week, I went to court to try and terminate my formal probation early(after almost 3 years), I went with very little hope knowing that sex offenses were more than likely not to be entertained in court, but I also went because the new DA(Gascon) made changes to the system. Regardless I wanted to say to myself that I at least tried instead of not trying at all. Lastly, I brought my treatment program Doctor’s report, my union acceptance letter and my PO sent his report directly to the court and by the grace of God, positive reports and hard work, the Judge granted me early termination of probation. I cried, I personally called the Doctor and my PO to informed them about the good news and to thanked them both, and very receptive on all ends, things have become positive in many ways under this scarlet letter. I pray for everyone and hope to hear from you guys again. Be safe and never give up hope……EVER!!!!!!
Probation and parole officers should do what takes to help a person re enter society. However the rules need to be attained to that as an overall goal. A person who has a record has a harder time finding a job and housing. More money should be spent on those resources than sending someone back to prison.
you guys was lucky, i had a state parole agent who had an extreme bias against S.O.s, and he tried his best to trip me up every chance he got, but i never gave the prick the satisfaction of sending me back…it was a very long, trying seven year tale for me.
Both of my federal probation officers were reasonable. I wouldn’t say either was exactly empathetic, but they didn’t act like complete jerks. The second woman was more talkative than the first. Although I didn’t mind slightly longer conversations since they were substantive and not just random conversations for the sake of meeting some quota. Which in talking with others on federal supervised release and those on county probation is about the best that can be hoped for.
Probation in riverside county wasn’t to bad when I turned 18 I took a plea deal for 3 years probation for some reason in riverside county they would switch my PO officer every 3 months after a year of different PO I started noticing their routine and how they operated which was very Important because I never actually lived where they thought I did how the hell I pulled that off for 3 years and never got cought is beyond me.
My registering address and the address I gave my PO was in riverside county but me my girlfriend/victim her brother and his girl were renting a house on the beach in san Diego county it was really nice and we had the coolest Neighbors ever and no one knew about my situation back home.
I had to report to my PO once a month for in person visit and the following month a in home visit so I would go home on 1st of the month and hang out there for about 5 days and like clockwork they show up we talk for about 2 minutes and that’s it .
I look back at the whole situation and laugh at how useless probation and Megan’s law is when it comes to keeping track of people forced to register
Good luck 😷👌
I literally did more time in prison on parole violations (not new crimes) than my actual offense. One violation was for possession of something a judge specifically said I could maintain possession of (I didnt have money for attorney to challenge it). CDCR then tried to illegally extend my parole period by an additional year, of which I had to borrow money for legal representation that quickly overrode that.