Probation Agents Research Articles

Observing Gender and Race Discourses in Probation Review Hearings

Much of the prior court literature has demonstrated gender and racial disparity exist across various decision-points. Less understood are the processes that produce this disparity, particularly in problem-solving courts. This article utilizes 100 observations of probation review hearings in three domestic violence courts to examine how judges, probation agents, attorneys, and probationers construct a probationer’s non-compliance. Using a critical discourse analysis approach, the author examined how probationers and their actions are constructed based upon gender and racial discourses. Gender differences in parenting responsibilities, mental health, and domestic violence discourses emerged, with racial differences in responsibility and mental health discourses.

The Connections of Parole and Probation Agent Communication Patterns With Female Offenders' Job-Seeking Self-Efficacy.

Using subsamples of 130 and 96 women on probation and parole, this research explores the direct effect of the supervising agent's communication patterns on client job-seeking self-efficacy. It also tests for the mediating effect through client psychological reactance, which is a feeling that one's freedoms are threatened. Agent and client reports of a conformity pattern of communication were associated with lower levels of job-seeking self-efficacy. Client reactance mediated this relationship. Agent and client reports of a conversational pattern of communication were associated with increased job-seeking self-efficacy. The results suggest that conformity-oriented communication should be avoided because of its potential to increase reactance and to promote low job-seeking self-efficacy. In contrast, conversational communication appears to have more positive effects on job-seeking self-efficacy. Findings highlight communication as a pathway through which agents can improve behavioral outcomes for women offenders searching for work.

Soins pénalement ordonnés et positionnements professionnels : des pratiques au carrefour de la Santé et de la Justice

At the crossroad of Health and Justice, penally ordered care underlies professional practices, the articulation of which can turn out to be delicate. Here we tackle the relevance and practical application of these measures. For that purpose, semi-directive interviews and field observations have been conducted with probation agents, judges (who follow up the way sentences are executed) and psychologists. The professionals’ comments and experiences show the complexity of these measures, which intend to make “care” into a recidivism prevention tool. Misconceptions appear about theory, practices and interprofessional relationships. The idea of “care” as a sole medical term appears to be ineffective and calls for the creation of new practices.

Implementation of a Contingency Management-Based Intervention in a Community Supervision Setting: Clinical Issues and Recommendations

A cognitive-behaviorally based substance abuse treatment program was implemented within a community supervision setting. This program included a goals group that used a contingency management component and included the probation agent as a part of the treatment. In this article, the authors describe the contingency management component of the treatment and discuss, in detail, issues that arose throughout the course of the study. Possible causes and solutions to the issues are discussed from a contingency management perspective that can result in improved reinforcements to achieve better probationer outcomes.

Meet the new boss: Institutional change and loose coupling in parole and probation

The authors use the institutional theory of organizations to argue that historical changes in parole and probation are ceremonial in the sense that they are aimed at an institutional audience and have had little effect on the day-to-day work of line-level officers. A review of the history of community corrections in the US suggests that parole and probation can be described in four eras, each era marked by a particular pattern of institutional authority and by corresponding changes in the structure, goals, and policies of parole and probation. By loosely coupling the work of street-level parole and probation agents to organizational goals and policies and minimizing caseload problems via surveillance and information-gathering techniques, the day-to-day activity of parole and probation officers has been largely unaffected.

Effects of the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines on Probation Agents

Abstract Studies have examined the effects of sentencing guidelines on sentencing disparities and prison populations, but little research has been done on their impact on correctional personnel. This study reports on a survey of probation agents, assessing their views of the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines. Results show disagreement on the agents’ role in pre-sentence investigations, and difficulties with regard to criminal history scores, plea negotiations, and working under the “just deserts” philosophy of the sentencing guidelines. The findings indicate a need for more administrative and judicial attention to clarifying probation agents’ roles and responsibilities under the sentencing guidelines.

Community Resources

In spite of a continued emphasis on safety, many correctional agencies are becoming convinced that society will gain its greatest protection by effecting proper integration of the deviant into a self-motivating, nondeviant role. Much of this resocialization can take place only at the community level and success demands the community's involvement. The community must see deviance as a problem that springs from the community—a community problem, not just a correctional agency problem. The orienta tion, then, must be one of partnership between the community and the parole and probation agent. This often requires a reorientation by the community agencies. It also usually requires a reorientation by the parole and probation agent. He must begin to view his work as a community service. This, in turn, allows him to view other community agencies as resources having potential utility as correctional tools. Once this partnership has been developed, the agent has the crucial task of choosing the appropriate resource at the appropriate time.

Predicting Institutional Adjustment and Recidivism in Delinquent Boys

In this study an attempt is made to determine which variables best predict the subsequent institutional adjustment of recently committed delinquent boys and, secondly, which variables best differentiate potential recidivists from nonrecidivists on the basis of data available and easily accessible to staff personnel at the time of the boys' first commitment. A number of investigators, including Ohlin and Reckless, have concluded that the use of actuarial or other objectively validated predictive indices provides an important basis for making decisions regarding parole success.1 Some investigators, such as Hakeem, have concluded that predictions made upon the basis of actuarial data are more accurate than those made by professional personnel, such as probation agents.2 A number of potential predictor variables which seemed promising were thus analyzed in terms of their relationships with the criterion variables of institutional adjustment and recidivism. The specific variables eventually included within the formal design of the study included the following: age; home environment; seriousness of offenses; personality prognosis; length of stay in the institution; institutional adjustment; and recidivism. We first hypothesized that the older a boy is at the time he is first committed to the institution, (a) the better his adjustment within the institution, and (b) the lower the probability of recidivism. This hypothesis is based in part upon a study by Glueck in which younger offenders were found to