Mental Health on Probation or Parole: Officer Perceptions of Supervisee Needs and Challenges

Background and Purpose: Probation and parole officers supervise a vast majority of all individuals involved in the criminal legal system, and a large portion of these supervisees have complex needs related to mental and behavioral health. Officers are increasingly being asked to provide additional supports (e.g., connection to behavioral health resources) to ensure clients thrive as opposed to simply maintaining safety of the community. Simultaneously, immense staffing shortages require community supervision departments to increasingly rely on less restrictive hiring requirements to maintain staffing needs. This results in larger portions of officers having lower levels of formal education than in years past, and those who have four-year degrees having a wider array of educational backgrounds. The combination of lower levels of education, more diverse fields of education, and higher supervisee needs related to behavioral health creates challenges for officers trying to successfully supervise high-need clients.

Methods: Data are presented from a cross-sectional, baseline survey of probation and parole officers (PPOs) in one Midwest state (n=193) as part of a larger evaluation study on behavioral health supports. All PPOs in three regions of the state were sent an email with a link to the survey asking them to anonymously identify areas in which they think their supervisees need resources around behavioral health, if any. The sample is predominately women (66%) and identifies as white (90%). The majority of respondents with a 4-year degree studied either criminal justice/criminology (62%) or a social science (18%).

Results: Approximately 40% of officers reported that at least half their caseload shows signs or symptoms of mental health needs, however 70% of officers stated they speak with mental or behavioral health service providers “occasionally” or less often. A large portion of officers also identified that mental health needs interfere with supervision completion (88%) with 35% of officers believing that supervisees use mental health needs as an excuse for noncompliance and 53% of officers reporting agreement that supervisees with mental health needs have more violations during supervision. Officers who had been in the profession longer reported fewer barriers to services than newer officers (p<.01) as did officers with smaller caseloads (p<.05). Officers reported low rates of being able to find outpatient treatment, 87% of officers said they can find outpatient services 50% of the time or less. Inpatient care was also challenging with 86% of officers reporting finding inpatient services less than 30% of the time they were looking.

Conclusion: PPOs must find a balance between maintaining community safety and ensuring the success of their supervisees. This is an increasingly difficult task given rising rates of behavioral health needs for individuals involved in the criminal legal system. Findings indicate a need for training and support for officers to identify signs of mental health, become familiar with service providers, and successfully refer supervisees as well as social work inclusion, or consultation, during staffing and case planning for high-need supervisees. Models such as specialty probation for mental illness are one way to increase officer support while not increasing workload.