The United States has a probation and parole population of over 4 million people according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. This leads to probation and parole officers being overworked, overwhelmed, and in need of assistance when it comes to getting their job done. In the past, supervising individuals on probation and parole has been timely and costly but new technology is evolving and being developed to reduce agency costs and create more efficiency.
Supervision officers have daily tasks of checking in with their supervised clients, meeting with them and making sure they are compliant. However, with supervising clients comes the daunting and time-consuming task of paperwork. In a recent virtual focus group hosted by TRACKtech, we found that majority of the parole officers interviewed spend 30% of their week completing administrative activities that include paperwork, compliance reports, and data input. Having to manually complete paperwork takes up valuable time that they could spend on helping clients or completing other duties. Before COVID, curfew checks and drive time to clients homes also took up a good portion of their everyday tasks. They can spend hours driving to and from house visits and having 100-150 caseloads can make for a long day without thinking of all the other tasks they have to complete.
With the increased use and development of technology, there are efficient and helpful features for probation and parole officers when it comes to completing their everyday tasks. The use of various forms of electronic monitoring reduces drive time and the costs of vehicle maintenance. It also mitigates safety risks officers have when performing house or curfew checks. Being able to remotely perform these checks frees up time for the officer as well to complete other work. Increasing time efficiency and the use of technology can allow for more face-to-face meetings in a day through virtual meetings or calls. This ensures that clients are staying compliant and allows for increased communication with their officer if necessary. The use of technology can drastically increase efficiency and compliance, while reducing agency costs and safety risks.
TRACKtech understands the difficulty officers face when it comes to having overwhelming caseloads and not enough time to get everything done. That is why we have designed a fully integrated, rehabilitative community supervision platform that allows officers to have more time within their large caseloads but also provides them with more resources and support to give individuals. Our TRACKphone allows probation and parole officers the ability to remotely check in with program members through biometric identification and videoconferencing. Geofencing capabilities are built into the phone and alerts are sent to officers when individuals are non-compliant or in violation of geo parameters. TRACKphone also has built in support resources and programs for members to take advantage of. Our solutions provide officers an efficient way to stay on top of their caseload, while reducing agency costs. Join us in working smart to get it RIGHT.