Tightening parole

Nevada's parolees are being watched more closely now than they were between 1993-98 when the state's supervision of criminals prompted severe criticism.

But even if they are doing a better job, state Division of Parole and Probation officers say they still need more manpower and better equipment.

A recently released state audit for 1993-1998 showed that some criminals on parole or probation were going virtually unsupervised and that many others were receiving only minimal oversight.

State law requires that criminals guilty of lesser offenses -- known as general probationers -- be visited at home at least once a month. More serious offenders are placed on "intensive probation," which means they must be visited at least twice a month.

According to the audit, 40 percent of those visits were not being conducted during the five-year study period. Aside from potential problems associated with lack of supervision over the criminals, the audit also pointed out that the state lost out on $900,000 in fees. Probationers are required to pay $30 a month to offset the cost of their supervision, and that fee was going uncollected in many cases.

Since 1998, however, the division has received a $2.3 million increase from the Legislature, bringing its total budget to $26.6 million. The increase has permitted more hiring and investment in a new computer system, which officials predict will improve the division's performance.

Division Deputy Chief R. Warren Lutzow said the budget increase reflects a growing awareness that law enforcement does not end with the criminals' arrests and convictions.

"Through the late 1980s and early 1990s a lot of money was spent on the front end," Lutzow said. "Now the pendulum is swinging back because lawmakers are realizing that these people were returning to the community (without adequate supervision)."

The lean years before the Legislature acknowledged budget shortfalls within the division left probation officers without computers, without state-supplied weapons, with rundown automobiles and heavily overburdened caseloads.

Today, Lutzow said, those problems are being addressed, albeit slowly. A new computer system is on order, so that by 2001 probation officers and their supervisors can replace their mounds of manilla folders with more efficient electronic data.

Officers will soon be able to keep track of restitution information, supervision fees, drug tests, problem areas and counseling sessions by entering data into a computer system that can also be accessed by their supervisor on a regular basis.

"The officers will know at the end of the month what they need to do," Lutzow said. "They'll know that they missed this on that individual and that on that individual and that this case has been completed."

Officers are now also provided with weapons and their caseloads have gotten some relief. Their vehicles, however, remain old and rife with mechanical problems.

Parole and Probation Officers Paul Shaner and Royal Bradley, while on their rounds recently, talked of how the budget carved out in Carson City affects their jobs on the streets.

The two are members of Las Vegas' intensive supervision unit. They spend five days a week visiting the worst of the worst -- the murderers, the rapists, the gangsters, the robbers. They visit those people who couldn't follow the rules of regular probation and those who would probably be behind bars if not for overcrowded prisons and plea bargains.

Parolees and probationers weren't being visited regularly during 1993-98 because many officers had caseloads of 100 people or more and because the officers weren't allowed to drive their state-owned vehicles more than 1,000 miles a month, the officers said.

At one point three years ago, officers would end up sitting in their offices the last two weeks of the month because they had driven their allotted miles, Shaner said.

At the same time the department's budget woes were so bad that most probationers and parolees were not being tested for drugs, Shaner said.

Things have slowly improved over the last two years but the department has a long way to go, the officers agreed.

"All of the money is still being spent on the front end," complained Shaner, a four-year veteran of the division. "We are a crucial part of the justice system, but we're the stepchildren."

Now, general probation officers monitor about 70 people instead of 100 and intensive probation officers keep track of about 30 felons instead of 50. The officers who monitor sex offenders have also seen their caseloads fall from about 70 to 45.

Probation officers are also being assigned geographic areas to cut down on the amount of traveling they have to do.

While lower caseloads is good news in terms of public safety -- the officers now find they have time to make all required home visits -- Shaner and Bradley would like to see even more officers on the streets.

The vast majority of the department's 297 sworn officers don't have partners. In fact, there are only 10 two-man teams within the Las Vegas office, which has 178 sworn officers. Shaner and Bradley are one of those teams.

When a Metro Police officer goes on a call, another officer will usually be dispatched to back him up. When a probation officer visits a probationer -- a person who is known to be a criminal and who knows prison is one misstep away -- he is usually alone.

Officers can ask for backup, but that means his fellow officer will have a harder time making his quota of home visits, Bradley said.

While neither officer has been in anything more than a scuffle, Shaner and Bradley said the potential for harm is always there.

And while probation officers no longer have to purchase their own weapons, Shaner carries an expired pepper spray canister and Bradley doesn't even have one, although his request has been in for three years. The department doesn't have the funds to equip the officers with new canisters.

Transportation is another issue. The division leases its cars from the state motor pool.

On a recent night, Shaner and Bradley were driving a 1991 Ford Escort with more than 89,000 miles and a dashboard cracked and blistered by the sun. Stopping for lights and signs sent the car into shudders.

Other cars, they say, are in worse shape and some are in the shop waiting for a lone mechanic to get to them.

"An oil change is not a one-day thing, that's for sure," Bradley said. "And if you take your car in for repairs you're always trying to borrow someone else's car to do your job."

Salary is also a big issue. Forty-two percent of Las Vegas' sworn officers have been with the division less than four years. Many of the agency's more experienced officers have taken jobs with Metro Police or with the federal probation office.

A new Metro recruit's salary is about $36,000 and his salary will top out at about $60,000. A U.S. probation officer starts out at about $38,000 and tops out at $62,000.

Despite the fact that state probation officers receive the same training as their counterparts with Metro and U.S. Probation, they start at $31,700 and top out at $51,000, Lutzow said.

Shaner and Bradley, who have master's degrees in sociology and criminal justice respectively, said state probation officers have to really love their jobs to stay with them. They said officers don't feel like they get the respect they deserve from state lawmakers or the general public.

Most people believe probation officers are strictly social workers.

"But we're more law enforcement than we are social workers," said Bradley, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent and U.S. Border Patrol officer.

Parole and probation officers are as committed to protecting the public as police officers, the officers said.

"I don't like to see people in jail. I've seen some hard luck stories, but at the same time, how would you like to see your mom or wife or your kid getting beat up, harassed or whatever?" Bradley said. "People get what they deserve and if they screw up while they're on probation, then there's something else going on that I, as an officer, can't help them with."

A probation officer's primary job is to arrest those who break the law, just like police officers.

Shaner said he can think of numerous situations when probation officers were treated with a definite lack of respect. In one incident, a probation officer had to call a Metro officer to get into a gated community because the apartment complex manager distrusted both the probation officer's badge and his somewhat disreputable looking vehicle.

Despite the hardships, however, neither officer has any intention of following their colleagues over to the federal system.

"The department has a lot of shortcomings, but it's improved a lot and I think it will continue to improve," Bradley said.

Parole and probation departments play dual roles, Lutzow said. The officers try to ensure the probationers don't commit new offenses, but they also make sure parolees and probationers attend counseling sessions, get jobs and stay clean and sober.

Lawmakers are now realizing how important probation officers are -- 67 percent of all criminals on probation make it through their probationary periods without further trouble.

And Lutzow wants that legislative attention to continue.

"Just hiring personnel isn't going to necessarily solve the problem," Lutzow said. "Some of our problems stemmed from the management level. Because our caseloads had become so large and unwieldy, we weren't able to monitor our officers."

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