Probation: A Way to Ensure Criminal Justice - Essay Sample

Introduction

The criminal justice system is mandated with the responsibility of ensuring that the rule of law is upheld at all times within a country. It strives to ensure that justice is accorded to all and sundry. Justice applies both to the victims as well as the perpetrators of the crime. After being found guilty of certain crimes, the court system recommends various programs to ensure that the perpetrators of the crimes are rehabilitated in the best ways possible. Probation is one of the programs used by the criminal justice system to ensure that criminals are rehabilitated. Each county within the United States of America has a probation department that provides that both juvenile and adult offenders are placed under close supervision to deter them from breaking the law again. The article being analyzed articulates the funding challenges encountered by the Riverside County Probation Department (Horseman, 2017). The services offered by the probation department are being crippled by the scarcity of financial resources within the County Executive Office which oversees the management of all Riverside County departments.

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The Riverside County Probation Department has two fundamental mandates- managing the county's juvenile halls and providing supervision to the convicted probationers who hail from the county. In a bid to ensure that its order is achieved, the Probation department employees several men and women to serve as probation officers. Each probation officer is assigned several cases to ensure that all convicted probationers have someone to guide them as they reclaim their place in their communities. The probation officers keep tabs on their clients to ensure that they do not engage in activities that will result in a violation of their probation order as issued by the criminal justice system. Before the financial crisis being experienced by the Probation Department, all departmental activities ran smoothly. For instance, the probation officers kept felony violation cases at a minimum. Within the first three months of 2017, there were a total of 460 felony violation cases reported within Riverside County. The department was able to sustain a well-staffed workforce since it was in a position to cater for their salaries and other work-related benefits. Since the department had a sufficient number of probation officers, it incurred minimal overtime costs since the officers could operate in well-stipulated shifts.

The dwindling financial reserves of the Riverside County Executive Office led to several changes within the Probation Department. The scarcity of financial resources could be attributed to some external economic factors. Despite the increase in tax revenues collected by the county, the Probation Department has had difficulties in reducing its budget deficit caused by increased ongoing expenses. In its budget for the 2016-2017 financial years, the Probation Department had a budget deficit of $15 million. In a bid to remain functional, it solicited one-time funding of a similar amount from the County Executive Office. Financial estimates of the new fiscal year that began on July 1st indicated that the Probation Department will still require a financial injection of a similar amount to remain operational. Seeing as how the department had a severe fiscal deficit, several proposed changes were suggested after consultations were held among various stakeholders.

The Probation Department was forced to lay off about 150 probation officers so that it could be in a position to save around $10 million in salaries and wages. This remedy only provided short term relief to the department. To ensure that the operations of the juvenile halls and other adult probation programs went on smoothly, the County Board of Supervisors increased overtime responsibilities for the probation officers who remained in active service. The remaining probation officers have been compelled to put in more work hours as they assumed the additional duties left behind by their colleagues. As the remaining officers focused on maintaining the requisite standards at the juvenile halls, they began neglecting the adult offenders who are on probation and parole. The lack of close supervision and monitoring of adult offenders has led to a substantial increase in the number of felony violation cases reported in Riverside County. Between July and September 2017, there were 588 reported cases of felony violation cases. This implies that the criminal offenders who have been released back into their communities were likely to resort to a life of crime hence endangering the lives of the other members of society.

Since the remaining probation personnel was being overworked and underpaid, there has been increased agitation among the employees of the Probation Department and Riverside County in general. The probation officers have pressed for better remuneration through their trade unions. This is because the probation officers have been unable to save towards their pension savings scheme as required by the California Public Employees Retirement System. Also, they were required to contribute more money towards a mandatory program that was established to cater to the needs of the indigent disabled people and elderly adults who live in Riverside County.

Due to the increase in many felony violation cases reported within Riverside County as a result of inadequate staffing at the Probation Department, the county's criminal justice system has been affected in many ways. For instance, the probation and parole violation cases have caused the District Attorney's Office and the Public Defender's Office to spend a lot of time and financial resources in court during trial hearings. Those who have been found guilty of parole and probation violations have ended up in overcrowded jail cells (Turner, Fain & Hunt, 2017). The overcrowding in jails has further complicated the financial situation for the County Executive Office. This is because the costs of jail inmate health care have significantly increased since the prison system has to cater for a large number of inmates who require medical attention.

Other personnel who collaborate with the probation officers have also been affected by the financial shortfall experienced by the county. The relevant authorities have not renewed the contracts of the deputies of the county Sherriff. This has severely affected the patrol activities within the communities who live in Riverside County. With the lack of frequent patrols in the streets, the criminals on probation and parole are likely to engage in criminal activities. This further compounds the problems faced by the few probation officers who remain in active service.

Several suggestions have been offered by various stakeholders to address the challenges faced by the Probation Department of Riverside County. Some stakeholders have called on the federal government to increase the state funding given to counties so that they can realign some of their operations. Furthermore, there is a need to relook at the policies that address the shift of responsibility for low-level criminal offenders from the federal government to the county government (Lin, 2018). There is also a need to curb the rising labor costs that threaten to cripple service delivery within the county.

The reduction in labor costs and increased funding from the federal government will enable the Probation Department to reduce its budget deficit. The increased funding from the federal government will allow the Probation Department to hire more probation officers thus reducing the ongoing expenses incurred from overtime duties. More probation officers have to be assigned to manage the juvenile facilities. In the 2016-2017 fiscal years, around 88% of the overtime costs incurred by the Probation Department were generated by the juvenile facilities. Through ensuring that more probation officers work in the juvenile halls, the Probation Department will be able to save a considerable chunk of its financial resources.

References

Horseman, J. (2017, December 30th). How Riverside County's budget crunch affects the Probation Department. Retrieved from (https://www.pe.com/2017/12/30/how-riverside-countys-budget-crunch-affects-the-probation-department/)

Lin, J. L. (2018). The Diversity of Decarceration: Examining First-Year County Realignment Spending in California. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 29(8), 771-798.Retrieved from (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0887403416644491)

Turner, S., Fain, T., & Hunt, S. (2015). Public safety realignment in twelve California counties. Rand Corporation. Retrieved from (https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR800/RR872/RAND_RR872.pdf)