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Changes and challenges in probation work
5:05:28
ยท
6 min
Dalvanie Powell, President of the United Probation Officers Association, discusses significant changes and challenges facing probation officers in their work.
- Probation officers now work different shifts, including late nights and weekends, affecting work-life balance
- Increased dangers in probation work, including violent incidents among probationers
- High caseloads for probation officers, with some handling up to 100 cases
- Concerns about staffing shortages and the need for more probation officers
- Issues with management decisions, including the removal of court liaison officers
- Powell emphasizes the need for proper training and support for probation officers
Dalvanie Powell
5:05:28
Can I add?
5:05:29
As you know probation is the alternative to corrections and one thing I wanted to bring to your attention because I'm listening to Benny talk, right?
5:05:37
And I meant I failed to mention that with these changes, my members are now working different tours.
5:05:43
We used to be Monday through Friday, right?
5:05:44
And, we used to make those judgments whether we wanted to go on the weekends or at night or whatever.
5:05:49
So, now we got my members are working they're working late night shifts twice a week and they work on the weekends.
5:05:56
So, also just like corrections, it's very difficult for us to balance our family work life.
5:06:01
Probation has changed significantly.
5:06:03
So, people think that because somebody's on probation that their behavior changes because they're no longer with corrections or they're no longer with the police department and that's far not that farther from the truth.
5:06:13
We're having the same issues like the Commissioner Mission.
5:06:16
We had a slicing, we had a probationer get sliced by another probationer in Queens.
5:06:22
That's showing that the trajectory of probation has changed significantly.
5:06:25
Our jobs are getting more and more dangerous and we're constantly having you know the neons, you heard about the neons?
5:06:30
We're having constant altercations at the neons, gang violence where our members have to interject and stop, you know, break up these fights on the regular.
5:06:40
See, these are these things that you don't hear about at probation.
5:06:43
So, we have a need just like anybody else in corrections, anybody else in police department.
5:06:48
If you're hiring let's do the math if you're hiring more police officers, which they just did, and you're hiring more correction officers, you're going to need more probation officers.
5:06:56
If you're talking about putting jail based putting jails in the
Sherrieann Rembert
5:07:00
Under the probation.
Dalvanie Powell
5:07:01
And then the communities and then he just said, where's the rest of them going?
5:07:04
They're coming to us.
5:07:05
They're coming to us.
5:07:06
And also and then earlier they mentioned about these caseloads being at 25 for 25 caseloads and 45 caseloads.
5:07:13
That's further from the truth.
5:07:15
I have my members doing the research for me and I could tell you right now we have blocks of areas and primarily the heaviest caseloads is in Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens and we have members with 100 cases.
5:07:28
And, if you think about it, if you're losing people
Diana Ayala
5:07:30
Yeah.
Dalvanie Powell
5:07:31
How could you say the caseloads are the same?
5:07:34
It's highly impossible.
5:07:36
So, just
Diana Ayala
5:07:36
like we all There's one officer per 100?
Dalvanie Powell
5:07:40
We have one officer, yeah, we have them one per 100, one per 70, and it depends like he was saying, it depends on your assignment, where you're at, how your case loads are going to look.
5:07:51
And when they took away and then when she took away vital positions, vital titles like the court liaison officers, those officers played a vital role in the courts.
5:08:02
Like I said, we worked for the courts, but for over fifty years we had these officers in the courts because they know the job, they talk the talk.
5:08:09
She's a supervisor for the court liaison officers.
5:08:12
And, for her to remove them from the family court is devastating.
5:08:15
If you get a chance, talk to the judges and how this has really stagnated and paralyzed the system and every role of every role that we play in the criminal justice system is very vital.
5:08:28
We're in the paper again twice in one day.
5:08:31
That's unheard of.
5:08:32
The mismanagement of this agency is detrimental to my members, is detrimental and most importantly the community at large.
5:08:38
And one more thing before I close, when we keep shifting probation offices like this, it affects our clients.
5:08:46
Yeah.
5:08:46
It affects our clients and they get frustrated and every time you turn around there's a new probation officer, understand we have to establish relationships with these people, long term relationships with them.
5:08:56
So, at the end, the whole community at large, their community see corrections with the gates, we're community corrections without the bars.
5:09:05
So, you look out the window that's my jail and we need the help.
Diana Ayala
5:09:08
Do you you have how many vacancies do you have?
Dalvanie Powell
5:09:12
Right now we have five eighty two probation officers and I'm not really sure it's probably over 300 vacancies.
5:09:18
If you ask me how many more probation officers we're going to need, listening to Commissioner Holmes today with all these additional initiatives that I did not know all about, We probably need to go back to fifteen, two thousand like we used to be because if we're going to carry the caseload of
Diana Ayala
5:09:34
is that?
5:09:35
What is the starting salary?
Dalvanie Powell
5:09:36
Recently we just negotiated the contract and our new starting salary went from 42,000 to $61,000 but I don't see the advertisement.
5:09:45
I don't see the new advertisement of the new job salary and I keep asking them when are you going to put the new job announcement out so that we can start attracting more people.
5:09:53
And another thing I'd like to add, five months of training is fine once I see what the curriculum is, I really don't know what it is, but every five months, twice a year it's not going to work.
5:10:02
Other administrators understood the necessity of overlapping our member our the staffing because we have a high attrition rate.
5:10:10
So we've been saying through labor management meetings and I'm we've been saying through labor management meetings we've been given advice on how to do this.
5:10:17
Prior administrations knew to double up on staff on the classes because it can be done and it has been done.
5:10:24
We had one group doing fundamentals while another one was doing peace officer training in another place.
5:10:29
It has been done.
5:10:30
So, are constantly I'm not a president of a union that makes complaints.
5:10:34
I give recommendations because I can, because I have done the work.
5:10:38
I'm a supervisor of civil service title, so I know what I'm talking about.
5:10:41
I've worked in family court and adult services, so I'm very well rounded and I'm confident in what I'm saying.
5:10:46
So, we're constantly giving recommendations that's fallen by the wayside.
Diana Ayala
5:10:49
Yeah.
5:10:50
I was going ask about the firearms.
5:10:53
Yes.
5:10:54
You mentioned that the training is
Dalvanie Powell
5:10:57
So what's happening is, okay firearms are at the discretion of the commissioner, alright, but we do have a policy where offices that's hired at a certain point doesn't necessarily have to carry, but the state mandates require that we qualify every year.
5:11:15
There's units in in probation supervision field units, yes, they should be they should be armed because they're going into the homes, right?
5:11:23
They're doing consent to searches, they're pulling out weapons, they're pulling out drugs and fentanyl, so we're exposed to a lot of stuff.
5:11:28
Then there's units that there's non field investigations, there's intake unit.
5:11:35
Do they have to carry a firearm?
5:11:37
No, they really don't because they're the front end, But, like I said, it's at the discretion of the commissioner, but they don't have to.
5:11:46
They don't believe they don't have to carry, but that's her decision.
Diana Ayala
5:11:48
But the new requirement is that they do?