By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
It's 10 p.m. Do we know where our criminals are?
Dallas County probation officials increasingly don't. They lost track
last year of more than 10,000 people they were supposed to be supervising, according to a new study obtained by The Dallas
Morning News. Half of them had committed felonies.
The number of probationers who are unaccounted for is up 65 percent since
2000. It also represents roughly a quarter of all people in the county who were on probation in 2004 – one of the worst
rates in Texas, although other big counties have nothing to brag about.
"This is a law and order story," said probation officer Kurt Kuehl. "Everybody's at risk."
Dallas County's 15 felony court judges oversee the probation department
and commissioned the study. Presiding Judge John Creuzot said they would have no comment on it until after a meeting Thursday.
"We're going to develop a direction that we would like to see the department
go in," he said.
The study does not lay specific blame. Rather, it paints a broad picture
of an overloaded, fragmented system.
Managing probationers is key to preventing more crime, experts say. About
one-third of all people arrested in Texas are on probation at the time police detain them, according to the most recent numbers
a study co-author was familiar with.
Such statistics feed the concerns of people like Dallas Police Chief
David Kunkle. He says his department cannot, by itself, slash the city's crime rate – which is the highest among the
nation's cities with more than 1 million residents.
"We're arresting people to the point that all the jails and detention
centers are full," the chief said. "All parts of the criminal justice system are going to have to work as efficiently as possible."
Budget constraints mean Dallas County's caseloads are high and getting
higher. Probation officers typically are assigned to supervise about 140 people apiece, said Dr. Jim Mills, the Community
Supervision and Corrections Department's interim director. The goal, according to the study, should be 60.
By The Numbers
40,481: People Dallas County probation officers were supposed to supervise
last year
10,249: People who went missing
5,240: Missing people who were on probation for felonies
140: People each officer is assigned to supervise, on average
420,000: People on probation in Texas
151,000: Texas prison population
SOURCES: Texas Department of Criminal Justice; Dallas Morning News
research
The volume of work keeps most officers stuck at their desks. That's
the only place they see most probationers. There's little surveillance of the places the offenders say they live and work.
And those desks? There aren't enough to go around, so some officers do
computer work at home two days a week.
The study says the judges, despite their management responsibility, don't
function as a team. They have a jumble of policies for monitoring the people they sentence, records show.
One major area of difference is judges' response to offenders who fail
to check in at probation offices. Several jurists tell officers not to file a violation report if someone fails to report
once. Some say to wait until there have been three straight failures.
Probation officers generally don't hunt for the absconders. Instead,
the violation report can lead a judge to issue an arrest warrant, which becomes the sheriff's problem.
The sheriff's warrant division has a staff of 60 and about 170,000 pending
warrants of all types, Sgt. Don Peritz said.
How many of the unaccounted-for probationers were caught last year? If
caught, were they locked up or just put back on probation? How many committed new crimes while on the lam?
The study doesn't address these questions. State and local officials
said they didn't know the answers.
But the problem of absconders is a long-standing one, stressed Dr. Mills,
who became the county's interim director several months ago after longtime head Ron Goethals retired.
"We've got drawers full of people that absconded years ago," Dr. Mills
said. He declined to comment on the study until the judges had.
The study
MGT of America, a Florida-based consulting firm that focuses on public-sector
clients, compiled the study based on government records and extensive interviews in Dallas. Head consultants were Dr. Tony
Fabelo, who was executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council under the Perry, Bush and Richards administrations;
and Ken McGinnis, former director of prison systems in Michigan and Illinois.
Probation is a huge and historically neglected piece of the criminal
justice system, Dr. Fabelo and current officials said. They described Dallas County's problems as similar to – if somewhat
worse than – those around the state.
"You're always triaging," said Bonita White, a former West Texas probation
officer who now runs the state's Community Justice Assistance Division.
"There's not enough time to do what you really need to do."
Texas has about 420,000 people on probation. That's almost twice the
number of all state prisoners and parolees combined.
Chief Kunkle said he knew little about the probation system and didn't
think his department worked closely with it. Such coordination could pay off, the new study suggests.
"More than 50 percent of felony probationers with addresses in the city
of Dallas reside in less than 5 percent of the city's neighborhood areas," it says.
Further study, it adds, could lead probation officers to target these
areas, working with law enforcement, other government agencies and community groups.
Texas law requires the judges to create a team that monitors the probation
department's effectiveness and gives policy guidance. The team should include representatives from the Dallas Police Department,
the City Council, county commissioners, state legislators, the sheriff's office and the school district.
But such a group "has not met in at least three years to develop a meaningful
plan," the study concludes.
Budgets
Dr. Fabelo said the pressure on probation departments will only grow
as judges, responding to the prison space crunch, sentence more high-risk offenders to supervision outside lockups. But do
the departments have the money to cope?
About half of their budgets come from fees probationers pay. Most of
the rest comes from the state – and until this year, Ms. White said, legislators had not increased probation funding
for a decade. There also had been a decline in programs, such as inpatient drug treatment, that can help people complete probation
successfully.
Legislators recently approved increases that should begin turning things
around, Ms. White said. Departments that receive the funds, she said, will be required to reduce caseloads and make other
changes.
Dallas County's department managers decided last year to move from a
narrow emphasis on enforcement to a broader goal of rehabilitation, using research-tested strategies.
But it isn't clear whether judges support the idea, the study says, and
the department "is not organizationally prepared to make this shift."
A PROBATION PRIMER
How people get put on probation, which is technically called community
supervision:
1. The defendant is convicted of a crime and sentenced to 10 years or
less of incarceration. The judge suspends the sentence and places the person under community supervision for the same period
of time. The judge attaches various conditions, such as not committing new crimes, not using drugs, submitting to urine tests
and regularly visiting a probation officer. Judges can send defendants to jail or prison if they violate the conditions.
OR
2. A judge finds that there is ample evidence to convict but doesn't
do so. This is commonly called "deferred adjudication." The defendant is placed under community supervision, as above, and
ends up with no criminal record if he or she completes the term successfully.
NOTE: People convicted of certain felonies, such as murder and aggravated
sexual assault, are not eligible for probation. There are fewer limitations on whom a judge may sentence to deferred-adjudication
probation.
Definitions
Felonies – the most serious crimes, such as murder
or aggravated sexual assault, with the shortest prison sentence being 180 days in a state jail.
Misdemeanors – less serious crimes, such as traffic
tickets, many of which are punished with fines only or short county jail terms; the maximum punishment is a year in jail
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research
THE FINDINGS
A new study of the Dallas County probation system describes a department
in disarray:
There is no clear vision for supervising people on probation –
no plan "to improve the likelihood that offenders would alter their behaviors" and "become productive, law-abiding citizens."
The department "does not have an effective research and evaluation unit."
Thus, trends can't be tracked, and the "effectiveness of their major
rehabilitation programs is unknown."
The department "is made up of numerous semi-independent units, each with
its own rules, policies and procedures." Communication "has been historically poor" throughout the organization.
Four of the top six management jobs are vacant, with a fifth expected
to open at year's end. The sixth is held by Dr. Jim Mills, the interim director.
Senior and middle managers lack clear roles.
Newly hired officers are trained without a standardized program.
About 30 percent of employees are eligible to retire within two years.
