Overwhelmingly big case loads and low pay are overburdening Guilford County NC’s probation system, leaving many offenders without direction or supervision and putting the public at risk.
Of the county’s 6,185 probationers, 1,219 of them could not be found as of Wednesday, probation officials said … Each of the 90 probation officers assigned to Guilford County must keep tabs on nearly 70 probationers. Good probation officers are leaving, tired of juggling heavy case loads and long hours for little pay.
Gov. Bev Perdue announced plans earlier this month to deal with a nearly $2 billion budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year. Of the proposed cuts, $93 million likely will be cut from crime and punishment programs. “The ultimate question will be with the worsening economy and the deficit we find ourselves in: How are we going to find the resources to tackle the (probation) problem?” said newly elected state Sen. Don Vaughan. “We need to find a way to stretch our resources to make probation effective.”
Vaughan, a local attorney with 25 years of experience, plans to make the probation system one of his priorities in the General Assembly. The state also needs to look at how probation cases are handled in the courts, he said. “On Monday morning, you can wait an hour to an hour and a half just to get inside the courtroom door because of the volume of (probation) cases in Guilford County,” Vaughan said …
Pay is another issue. Probation officers are paid the same statewide. But in urban areas with higher case loads, more court hearings and issues such as gangs, many officers are leaving the job, probation officials said. “We have officers come in, stay two or three years and get some work experience, and move on to bigger and better things,” Gerald said. “It’s a revolving door. … To keep good people, you are going to have to pay them.” On average, a state probation officer with a few years of experience makes about $37,000 a year. A federal probation officer can make about $50,000. Ideally, Max Gerald said, he needs 12 to 15 more probation officers in Guilford County and a case load of about 45 to 50 cases each. He would like to see pay start at $40,000 for community-level officers and in the $50,000 range for intermediate officers.
This is just a sample from a long and information-rich article in the Greensboro News-Record.
vericatrajkova Community Corrections, NC Guilford County