Feeling the pinch

Probation and Parole Association lobby for bill to fund salaries, cars, uniforms

By Kelly Foreman

RICHMOND, Ky. — A criminal who abused his second chance at participating in society by violating the terms of his parole stands on a street corner in handcuffs.

A man, unidentifiable by anything other than his control of the cuffs, stands beside him waiting as the criminal’s family cries and yells from the home behind them, unhappy their relative likely will be returning to prison.

The parole officer calls for assistance from another law enforcement agency to take the offender to jail.

They wait.

He drove his own vehicle to make the required home visit because one of the other six officers needed the one car they share. He can’t afford the insurance to cover transporting the violator in his own car or the liability.

Sound unbelievable? In Madison County and across the state, it is not an uncommon scene for probation and parole officers. Through new legislation, members of the Kentucky State Probation and Parole Officers Association are trying to change that.

House bill 155 was introduced Tuesday in the Kentucky House of Representatives by state Rep. Robin Webb, D-Grayson. The bill would establish a Probation and Parole Trust Fund to support the costs of a 10 percent salary increase for the officers,

the purchase of vehicles and a $500 annual uniform allowance — all without spending tax-payer monies.

Six of Kentucky’s 399 sworn probation and parole officers are employed in the Richmond office. They share one state-supplied vehicle to get them to court hearings, home visits, to and from the jail and other daily activities in both Madison and Clark counties.

“Through an open records request we obtained that 11 percent of the (Department of) Corrections fleet is given to probation and parole,” said Tim Horn, KSPOA vice president and Richmond probation and parole officer. “Out of 435 vehicles assigned to the DOC, only 48 are assigned to probation and parole field offices.”

There are 57 field offices in Kentucky.

The KSPOA considers the officers’ lack of uniforms a safety issue when working in the field. While a dress code policy is in place requiring the officers to wear either business suits, a coat and tie or polo shirts with dress slacks, the state only provides them with a gun holster, their weapon, pepper spray and handcuffs.

“If we have anything that has probation and parole on it, we have to get it done ourselves at Galls (equipment and uniform company) and pay for it out of pocket,” said Jarrod Elkins, KSPOA member and Richmond probation and parole officer. “People have called Richmond Police and the sheriff’s office on us thinking we’re hit men or something, not knowing who we are.”

Horn agreed.

“They are sometimes a little hesitant to answer the door,” he said.

But the cost of purchasing a specific wardrobe and having that wardrobe altered to identify themselves in the public isn’t cheap. The officers are on the state’s pay grade system and earn a starting wage of $14.93 an hour, the equivalent of $29,129 annually. They are eligible for a raise after five years of an extra $1.49 an hour. After another five years, the officers can earn another $1.64 on the hour, according to the last updated state pay-grade schedule.

Probation and parole officers are the only state law enforcement required to have a bachelor’s degree with no clause to substitute experience for that education, Horn said. They are required to be knowledgeable in federal and state laws and local ordinances, court proceedings, controlled substance abuse issues, drug identification, effective rehabilitation practices, domestic violence issues, mental and psychological disabilities, sexual predators and more.

When the pay grade was established, Elkins said it was based on the presumption that the state would be paying out annual 5 percent raises to all state employees — but that hasn’t happened since 2001, according to the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet.

“We’ve got people who qualify for food stamps when they first hire on,” said KSPOA President Chris Caldwell. “That’s sad when you have a college education. And we’re not asking for anything out of hand. We’re just asking to be paid. We have to live up to (American Corrections Association) accreditation standards and all the other states are paid from $6,000 to $10,000 more a year than we are. That’s the facts.”

Case loads mounting

With the success of drug court and an increased emphasis on sentencing alternatives to prison, the officers’ case loads have grown significantly in the past few years.

“What I have certainly seen over the course of the past 14 years is that through legislative and regulatory processes, the work of the front-line probation officer has been more complicated and additional responsibilities have been added,” said Madison Circuit Judge Julia Hylton Adams, who also presides over Clark County Circuit Court. “The simple paperwork function for them is utterly a nightmare that causes them to be unable to do some of the things they know they need to be doing.”

Officers must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to properly supervise the offenders and “retrain (their) thinking after dealing with years and years and years of whatever brought them into the criminal justice system,” Adams said. It is the job of the officers not only to make them learn to behave, but also to be productive citizens, she said.

“If we’re going to have that (alternative sentencing) focus, then we need to be honest with the citizens of Kentucky and when we say we have community supervision, we need to really have that,” Adams said.

“The people in Madison County are very fortunate these probation officers actually volunteer their time to do meaningful community supervision,” she said. “I don’t think at this time they even are permitted to apply for comp time. They actually are going above and beyond what the state requires to assure Madison Countians there is meaningful supervision in the county.”

It is because of that work that Elkins said officers across the state are severely underpaid.

“It is very difficult sometimes seeing your pay stub on the 15th and 30th and knowing how much work you do for it,” he said. “I am in a little better shape than others in that I am married and my wife works. But there are many officers who are not married and don’t have that extra income. They have to work second jobs and have to struggle through and that is a shame.”



Kelly Foreman writes for the Richmond (Ky.) Register.

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