Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.


Tuesday, December 11, 2007

ATM Probation?

Technocorrections are going after the jobs of probation and parole officers.

Here's how probation once worked in New York City. The offender would report to an overworked officer who may have handled 250 other cases. The officer filled out a paper form that would find its way into a file cabinet in an office never again to see the light of day. "It was a joke," says one former probation officer. "It served neither probationers nor public safety."

Here's how probation once worked in New York City. The offender would report to an overworked officer who may have handled 250 other cases. The officer filled out a paper form that would find its way into a file cabinet in an office never again to see the light of day. "It was a joke," says one former probation officer. "It served neither probationers nor public safety."

Checking in with an automated probation system in New York.
Checking in with an automated probation system in New York.
(Jim Lo Scalzo for USN&WR)

In the mid-1990s, faced with shrinking budgets and cuts in staffing, the city began installing a series of kiosks to manage the lowest-risk offenders on probation, expanded to include all low-risk probationers in 2003. (High-risk probationers and sex offenders are still required to deal with officers directly.) Offenders from publicist Lizzie Grubman to rapper Jay-Z, along with thousands of other petty criminals, have reported to the automated kiosks, says Jane Imbasciani, assistant commissioner in the department of probation. Meanwhile, cities in Georgia, Florida, Minnesota, and Illinois have installed similar systems.

The kiosks, which resemble ATMs, ask offenders to scan their hands and respond to some basic questions about their residence, job, and contact with police. The process takes about three minutes. A computer randomly selects users for drug testing, conducted in a small anteroom. "It frees up officers to focus on the more dangerous people, it frees up money, and, frankly, the machines are far better at record keeping," says Department of Corrections Commissioner Martin Horn. The computers also allow officers to track probationers' movements through the computerized self-reporting system, matching crime rates to probationer residency patterns and helping police focus resources. Moreover, in a blow to those who champion stricter sentences for petty crimes, statistics show that some probationers are less likely to commit another crime if their contact with probation officers is minimal.

US World News

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Parole officers in CO are paid, reviewed and promoted upon the number of persons they put back into prison, not the success stories. The whole system is so corrupt and distorted. If the officer does have to be in their face, they dont have to spend time going into their houses at 2am to see if they have a baseball bat "as a weapon" and get credit for throwing them back into prison.
It is just a power game for this CO DOC.

Anonymous said...

YOU KNOW SOMEHOW I REALLY TO BELIEVE THIS. SOMETHING CORRUPT IS GOING ON IN COLORADO!

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