Federal probation officers are adding to the services they long have provided to the persons they supervise, furthering the goal of helping them become productive citizens.

"Tough on crime" legislation in the past two decades may have emphasized a more simplistic philosophy of "trail 'em, nail 'em, and jail 'em," but the original goal of protecting the public by reducing recidivism has remained a vital aspect of the probation officer's job.

Violations of supervision may send offenders back to prison, enhancing public safety in the short term, but turning those offenders into hard-working, tax-paying citizens enhances public safety long-term. And for a fraction of the cost.

"Our responsibility is to give offenders every tool possible to help them succeed," said Douglas Burris, chief probation officer of the Eastern District of Missouri. "We want to do everything possible to help offenders adapt to the community."

Migdalia Baerga, mental health administrator in the Office of Probation and Pretrial Services of the Administrative Office, said most newly released offenders "embrace the idea of getting a fresh start, and want to stay out of prison."

But the reality, she added, is that many return to their communities "unprepared for gainful employment because they lack the skills or the educational background or long-term resolve . . . . Successful reintegration of offenders into society depends largely on the support systems they have in place when they are released from custody. The best probation officers become agents for change."

The statistics bear out Baerga's contention. Recent studies indicate that more than 70 percent of those whose supervision is revoked are unemployed when they go astray. Those offenders who did not graduate from high school and do not have an equivalency diploma are twice as likely to have their supervised release revoked.

In St. Louis, Burris cited those statistics in discussing the changes his office initiated four years ago.

"In fiscal year 1999, we had 938 people on supervision in the district, and 118 people were revoked. That rate was 47 percent higher than the national average," he said.

Programs that emphasized employment and education were begun, and bore fruit.

"In fiscal year 2003, the number of people on supervision had grown to 1,439 in the district—a 53.5 percent rise in five years—but the number of people revoked was again 118," he said. "That rate is 28 percent lower than the national average."

Probation officers tapped into state-funded Adult Education and Literacy programs for the resources to teach all federal offenders within the district to read and write English, and to acquire other basic skills for functioning in society.

One success story is Alberta, serving a term of supervised release for aiding and abetting money laundering. A high school dropout, she had a string of fast-food jobs before she attended 80 hours of job readiness through a private agency called Connections to Success. With the assistance of a job coach, she obtained her commercial driver's license and now is a municipal bus driver.

Another is Philip, an ex-police officer on probation for distribution of cocaine. He attended college with the assistance of a vocational rehabilitation program, and now works as a carpenter apprentice.

In the Eastern District of Missouri Probation Office, employment specialists Pat Doherty and Scott Anders collaborated with state and city probation authorities to sponsor annual job fairs at a local university, and started probation officers working with employment specialists at federal Bureau of Prison halfway houses before offenders are released.

The district's employment program became a model, and in fiscal year 2003 probation officers from Missouri Eastern helped establish similar programs in 12 other judicial districts: Northern Ohio, Western Michigan, Northern Alabama, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Missouri Western, Arkansas Western, Georgia Middle, Georgia Northern, and all three districts in Florida.

In a system that today is supervising more than 110,000 people, what does success in the fight against recidivism mean in dollars and cents? Burris said it costs the Bureau of Prisons $23,183.69 a year to incarcerate someone, not counting the loss of tax base and money spent for family members who might need assistance.

"The cost to taxpayers of our treatment, employment and education programs is a tiny fraction of the expense of recidivism," he said.

Another savings can be measured in judges' time. In 1999, when the Eastern District of Missouri had 938 people on supervision, a total of 1,163 violation reports were filed with the district court—1.24 reports per offender. In 2003, there were 368 violation reports on the 1,439 people on supervision—.256 reports per offender.

"Estimating conservatively the time a judge must spend on each
violation report, that reduction represents at least 350 hours of judicial work," Burris said.

A team concept, encompassing other federal programs, state agencies and the private sector, helps keep down the costs incurred by the federal probation system.

For example, probation officers in the District of South Dakota began the Family Assistance Project (FAP) in 2001 to help Native American offenders with special needs and their families.

The project taps into local resources and helps direct offenders in the Sioux Falls community to programs and people who can help with education, employment, housing and transportation.

"Key agencies—county welfare, the Homeless Coalition, and American Indian Services, to name a few—were interviewed, and probation officers were refamiliarized with the available services," senior probation officer Maureen Janssen said.

Chief Judge Lawrence Piersol of the District of South Dakota called the program "a true success."

"Native American families, at least those in our district, have even greater problems than most families with offenders," he said. "Aside from the normal problems, there are cultural differences that can cause more difficulties.

"The FAP, coupled with the extra work by our probation staff, really does make a difference that I am proud of," Piersol said.

In the Northern District of Indiana, probation officers now provide all offenders with a resource guide—a packet of information on how and where to get specific types of help.

Baerga said the AO's Office of Probation and Pretrial Services is consideringlaunching a national community resource links page with information on housing,education, employment, financial assistance, health, substance abuse, and more.The idea, she said, is to help all districts create a resource manual.