Articles
& News
December 17, 2008
County Commissioner Calls On
Governor-Elect To Reform Probation System
By Paul Matadeen, DURHAM, N.C. -
After having continued concerns about the status of the state's
probation and parole system, Durham county commissioner Ellen
Reckhow has presented the following letter to the county's crime
cabinet. The letter is to governor-elect Bev Perdue about the
county's probation and parole problems.
Letter to the Governor-Elect:
December 15, 2008
Governor-elect Beverly Perdue
Mail Service Center 20305
Raleigh, NC 27699-20305
Dear Bev:
I was pleased to read your comments in Friday's News and Observer
that you plan to make addressing problems in probation a priority of
your administration. The N & O Series provided an excellent review
of the problems in probation statewide and the impact on violent
crime that we experience locally. I hope that you will not only
focus on probation, but also address needed improvements in the
criminal justice system.
In Durham County, we have a Crime Cabinet which meets every other
month. It brings together all the key players - judges, the district
attorney, the sheriff's office, police, probation, juvenile justice,
local elected officials, and others - to discuss strategies to
reduce crime in Durham. It has been an excellent forum to develop
strategies to address the issues we face. Just recently, we agreed
to create a central warrant control repository after Chief District
Court Judge Bushfan brought the issue to us. Other initiatives,
including fingerprinting misdemeanants, use of CourTools to track
court performance, strengthening efforts to combat truancy,
developing a jail and prison reentry program, and other efforts have
been beneficial.
I encourage you to review the National Institute of Corrections
Technical Assistance Report, completed in August 2008, which
includes 35 recommendations to help improve the probation function
in our state. One of the recommendations is to create a Criminal
Justice Coordinating Council to provide general policy guidance and
oversight for the criminal justice system. Currently, the criminal
justice system is fractured with no one entity looking at it in a
holistic manner. At the local level, it is very difficult to
communicate effectively about the need for systemic change. In
Durham, we have known for years that the state criminal justice
information system was obsolete, seriously hampering system
efficiency. While we did communicate with state officials and have
made upgrade of the criminal justice information system a top
legislative priority for many years, it has been hard to get
traction for the issue at the state level.
In April, 2008, following the March murders of two college students
in our area, we held a special Crime Cabinet meeting with Robert
Guy, Director of the Division of Community Corrections, to discuss
probation issues since the two men charged with the murders were
both on probation. A review of those cases indicated multiple
problems associated with probation supervision and the lack of
information flow among law enforcement, probation, and the courts.
Issues that emerged included:
• budget constraints
• high turnover (62 people had left the Durham office since 2005)
• large number of vacancies in Durham office - 16 out of 71
positions in April 2008
• low starting salaries
• probation officers often are forced to begin work without the
required training
• gaps in the system and lack of connection between agencies
• more information needs to be available to judges at sentencing so
they can make the right decision including the juvenile records
(Letter to Linda Hayes attached)
• findings from a Department of Corrections report about problems in
the Durham office in 2004 including high turnover rate, employee
compensation, high caseloads and outdated technology that were not
addressed four years later
While some management changes have been made, the caseloads are
still far too high due to vacancies. According to the News and
Observer investigation, Durham County has average caseloads for
intensive probation officers of 70 - 82 when the recommended number
is 30. In addition, 20 % of cases in Durham County are considered to
be absconders since the probation officer cannot find them. This is
the highest rate in the state. In September, of 4161 total offenders
on probation in Durham County, 831 are considered absconders.
Statewide, the absconder rate is 12% and nationally, it is 9 %. Why
should the absconder rate in Durham County be twice the national
average? This is unacceptable and must be addressed.
These figures are very alarming since they seriously compromise the
safety of our citizens. We agreed at our last Crime Cabinet meeting
to work with probation officials to track some key data so we can
monitor the performance of probation in Durham going forward.
Monitoring results and accountability will be critical to restore
faith in the probation office. (Letter to John Lee attached.)
Last spring, we lobbied for more resources for probation and
enhanced funding for information sharing. (Letters to Governor
Easley and Secretary Beck attached) We are pleased that finally an
information sharing program is being developed that will allow
probation officers to better monitor arrest information for their
cases. However, we are very concerned that the $2.5 million that the
General Assembly allocated to reduce the case load in probation has
not been spent. This must be made a priority, along with filling the
existing vacant positions and improving training for new hires.
In conclusion, I hope that you will review the National Institute of
Correction report and take a holistic approach in improving the
probation function and other key components of the criminal justice
system. Ideally, local and state officials should work together to
improve the safety of our citizens. Please know that I am ready to
assist you in any way that I can.
Sincerely,
Ellen W. Reckhow
Vice-Chairman
Durham County Board of Commissioners
Co-Chair, Durham Crime Cabinet
Attachments
C: Durham Crime Cabinet
Board of County Commissioners
Local State Delegation
Reckhow will also submit a letter to John Lee, the local judicial
district manager for the Division of Community Corrections.
