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Probation and Pretrial Services System Finds Ways to Cut Costs

     The combination of growing caseloads and shrinking appropriations presents the Federal Judiciary with a difficult mission: Do more with less. The Probation and Pretrial Services system, home to one-fourth of all Judiciary employees, appears up to the challenge.

     A new approach to early termination of low-risk offenders on probation, less costly drug-testing methods, and new treatment practices for drug offenders are three recent innovations that have drawn praise.

     "The steps you have taken to date to lower costs while still fulfilling your responsibilities to the court and to the community have been most impressive," Administrative Office of U.S. Courts Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham said in a letter to chief probation officers and chief pretrial services officers nationwide.

     "I encourage you to continue to look for ways to reduce workload growth and to make your offices more efficient despite fewer resources," he added.

     The number of criminal offenders on federal probation grew steadily through the 1990s and continued to do so each year in the new century. Latest figures show a historic high of 110,620 persons being supervised.

     It seemed a formula for crisis: The numbers of people coming into the system grew every year, and is expected to keep growing. The number of probation officers handling the caseload stayed constant, and is not expected to grow.

     Recognizing that reality, the Judicial Conference in March 2003 approved steps aimed at significantly increasing the number of people given an early end to their periods of supervised release, easing the need for more probation officers.

     The Conference concluded that probation offices should request courts to consider early termination in the following instances:

- When imposed conditions of supervision, such as regular drug testing and payment of fines, have been met.

- When an offender has successfully re-entered the community, and

- When an offender does not pose a foreseeable risk to public safety in general or to any individual third party.

     "No one who has not been under supervised release for at least a year is eligible for early termination," explained Timothy Cadigan, a senior policy analyst in the AO's Office of Probation and Pretrial Services.

     "No one is seen as representing a risk to society is eligible as well. We have a Risk Prediction Index that ranges from 0 to 9. Only an offender with an RPI of 0, 1 or 2 should be considered," he said. "Of course, the decision as to whether to terminate supervision early rests with the sentencing judge."

     In the first year, early terminations increased 67 percent - from 3,703 in fiscal year 2002 to 5,486 in fiscal year 2003. The two districts with the largest increase in early termination cases over that one-year period were Texas Southern (137) and South Carolina (120). In terms of percentage, Iowa Southern and Tennessee Western lead the nation in additional cases with early terminations, with 36 and 26 percent, respectively.

     In Iowa Southern, Chief Probation Officer John Stites called the approach "both a practical and productive policy that encourages and rewards compliant behavior, while relieving the officers of the supervision of persons no longer in need of monitoring or correctional treatment."

     "This becomes an even more critical management tool in our era of diminishing resources," Stites said.

     Some Probation and Pretrial Services offices have begun using a drug-testing methodology that, in certain cases, can eliminate the need to send a urine sample to a national laboratory.

     Using one of several hand-held devices now on the market, an officer can test an offender's urine for indication of illegal drug use - for a cost of $4 to $9 per test. If the offender admits to drug use, the officer need not send the sample to the national testing lab, where each test costs $26.

     "We expect this will result in significant savings," said Chris Maloney, OPPS Program Services Branch Chief.

     Another potential cost savings is a move to group, instead of individual, counseling for offenders. Maloney said recent studies indicate better therapeutic results for small-group counseling sessions, and noted that the per-offender cost can be cut from $40 or more to $15 per hour.