The number of convicted felons monitored by probation officers in Georgia far exceeds national recommendations, a Channel 2 Action News investigation has found.
Officer ratios for so-called low-risk offenders are five time the recommendations in some instances, the investigation found, and the problem is particularly acute in Fulton County, Georgia’s most populous.
Convicted felons are committing crimes because not enough people are keeping tabs on them, said Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard.
“In our Fulton County system they’re so many people on probation that it is impossible, in my view, for the current probationary staff to adequately supervise,” Howard said.
Statewide, one in 13 Georgians are under some form of supervision.
Last year, the state Legislature created the Department of Community Supervision to make monitoring of convicted felons more efficient. Probation and parole where previously handled by two separate agencies.
“A lot of times you had one state agency supervising an offender that another state agency was supervising as well and it just didn’t make a lot of sense,” Community Supervision Commissioner Michael Nail told Channel 2.
But the Legislature only funded the department with enough money to fill 72 of 192 vacancies, or just over one-third of open positions, and low pay often makes those positions hard to fill.
The American Probation Parole Association recommends certain caseloads based on how likely an offender is to re-offend.
The association recommends one officer for 30 high-risk felons, 60 for medium-risk felons and 120 for low-risk ones.
Statewide, Georgia’s officer to offender ratios are 50 to 100 percent higher, depending on risk category.
In Fulton, the officer-to-felon ratios are even worse due to staffing problems. The county has one officer for every 72 high risk offenders, 130 for those with a middle risk, and one for every 587 low risk offenders, Channel 2 found.
Probation vacancies in Fulton
A Channel 2 reporter strapped on body armor and embedded with Department of Community Supervision Assistant Chief Nick Powell to see first-hand how challenging monitoring convicted felons can be.
“There’s not really such thing as a typical day,” Powell said as he drove to College Park to check on offenders.
Nearly 120,000 Georgians are on either probation or parole. Typically, officers are tasked with keeping track of them, but in Fulton staffing woes mean all hands on deck for Community Supervision employees.
“Typically, assistant chiefs don’t make field visits, but in Atlanta we do,” Powell said.
There are currently 30 vacancies at the Atlanta field office, which handles supervision cases for all of Fulton County.
Powell said he’s in the field at least once a week to help the department do its job.
Low pay hurts recruitment
Nail said he doubts his agency will ever have enough resources for staffing levels that align with nationally recommended standards.
“I would like to say yes, but I’m also a realist,” Nail said. “I’m not so sure it will ever get to that.”
But Nail said new techniques would make supervision more efficient, and more offenders would get the tools they need to become productive members of society. For example, one officer will be assigned to all of the offenders who live in one apartment complex, or offenders who are in the same family.
“Now we have one officer, one family, one community,” Nail said.
The commissioner expects ratios to improve and the department to transform in three to five years.
Community supervision is hiring. Last month, recruits were doing the defensive tactics and firearms portion of their nine-week training course.
The long list of requirements to work for Community Supervision includes a four year degree.
The commissioner said the pay, $34,000 a year, is a hard sell when for a job that means you come face to face with felons each day, especially in Fulton.
“You’re talking about $34,000 a year for folks that have a college degree that can very easily walk away and go work somewhere else, actually part time, making that amount,” Nail said. “At the end of the day, those that leave have to struggle and ask themselves about the responsibility to also take care of their families.”
Community Supervision will consider what additional resources they’ll need, including money, after a full year of operation.
For now, that means supervisors on the streets.
“If you don’t have enough resources to give 100 percent to everybody, you’ve got to triage,” Nail said.
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