Monday, July 12, 2010

Probation, Parole and Community Supervision Week: Support for a Second Chance

Together, the Chief Adult Probation Officer and the Director of
Juvenile Court Services for Pinal County recognize the exemplary
service of their staff whose combined efforts and skills provide
investigations and supervision of offenders, child advocate services,
victim services, and detention operations to benefit this community,
its families, and its offenders.   July 18th-24th represents a
well-deserved nationwide celebration in recognition of this difficult
and often silent work.

 For over 100 years, officers have been supervising offenders to make
our communities a safer place to live. These dedicated professionals
serve crime victims and hold offenders accountable for the wrong they
have committed to our families, friends and communities. It is through
their commitment to public safety that our communities are a safer
place for everyone.

Today in Pinal County, Adult Probation manages over 2300 offenders
with caseloads averaging 70 offenders to one officer.  A snapshot of a
day at Juvenile Court Services reveals supervision of 597 juveniles
from Diversion, to Detention, to Probation, and manages 327 active
Dependency cases.  Probation staff work days and nights on school
campuses, in judicial offices and in your town.

The challenges they face are tremendous, yet they continue to make a
difference. These officers are active in their communities by creating
links between the justice system, community leaders and organization
and the public for offenders who need help re-integrating into their
neighborhoods.

They are professionals who constantly acquire knowledge of what
motivates offenders and apply that knowledge in the most effective way
possible. The work they do has become multifaceted and goes well
beyond supervision and surveillance of offenders - it has expanded to
include working with victims and community in a much more involved
capacity. All of this is done in an effort to ensure the highest level
of public safety.

These professionals provide Support for a Second Chance in their
communities and deliver on their promise to enhance public safety and
help restore juvenile and adult offenders to lead productive lives
with these pillars:

Monitoring behavior
Fearless pursuit of helping people turn make positive life changes
Results-driven management
Specialization
Technological innovation
Accountability

Community corrections professionals face real dangers in their jobs
and are often asked to risk their own safety to make sure that others
are kept safe from crime.

During this week, please help us honor and recognize the work these
professionals do each and every day of the year.

­­­­­Photo Caption: DIANE L. MCGINNIS, Director and TODD D. ZWEIG,
Chief Adult Probation Officer