The caseloads of Arkansas parole and probation officers can be lowered by not counting offenders such as those who are "inactive" or in jail for a few months, the Department of Community Correction's interim director told lawmakers Tuesday.
Kevin Murphy told members of the Legislative Council's personnel committee that they should expect to see lower numbers in the next quarterly report after presenting the most recent report, which showed an average caseload of 147 per officer.
"One of the things that you will see in our next report is the actual supervision [of] how many offenders each parole officer is actually supervising," Murphy told Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock. "So, as far as the active [caseload], as far as the work we do on a daily basis, it is somewhat lower than" the average for the quarter that ended June 30.
Elliott had pressed Murphy on whether his department will seek to increase the number of parole and probation officers.
In July, the department's previous director, Shelia Sharp, suggested that she was fired by the state Board of Correction for defying Gov. Asa Hutchinson's orders not to ask for staff increases without his approval beforehand. At that time, Hutchinson said he agreed with the board's decision and thanked her for her service.
Sharp had sent the board a budget request seeking permission to hire 99 additional parole and probation officers at a cost of about $13.4 million over two years. The board approved a request for 30 more officers.
The request for more parole and probation officers stemmed from a 2016 report by a state task force that recommended that the state hire 100 parole and probation officers over six years to reduce caseloads of 129 offenders per office, a load that was more than double that in other states.
While the Community Correction Department makes up less than a quarter of the state's $440 million corrections budget, the agency oversees the majority of offenders: 60,000 parolees and probationers, as well as some people housed in short-term lockups.
"Are you going to have any ability ever to come to us and suggest that we fund more officers, so we can do something about their almost inability to do their job because they have too many people assigned to them?" Elliott asked Murphy.
"We are currently doing an analysis of all of our population, and we have found several things that we can do to lower the caseloads," Murphy responded.
One of those things is counting only those offenders actually being supervised by officers, he said.
The current caseload report "includes everyone," including some offenders who are spending three to 90 days in jail and others who could be moving through an interstate compact, Murphy said.
The current report shows that the largest average caseload is in Northwest Arkansas where it's 192 per officer. West Memphis has the lowest average caseload of 106 per officer. In the Little Rock area, it's 110 per parole officer and 179 for each probation officer.
The department has 501 parole and probation officers positions, and 33 of them are vacant, department spokesman Dina Tyler said after the legislative panel's meeting. The department has 1,492 total positions, including 1,339 that are filled, 123 that are vacant, and 30 unbudgeted parole and probation officer positions.
After the legislative panel's meeting, Murphy said the adjustments won't bring caseloads down to 60 per officer, the average that has been recommended by out-of-state researchers.
"We also are looking at those offenders who have not committed any violations for years, that are adhering to all the rules that are still on a caseload," Murphy said.
"We are looking at moving those to a very minimal supervision to where it will lessen the duty for that officer to allow him to concentrate on the medium and maximum supervision and, with doing that, we believe those caseloads will be reduced substantially."
Murphy said department officials are also reviewing other positions within the department that could be reclassified as parole and probation officers, and will recommend that reclassification to the state Office of Personnel Management.
"We are looking at everywhere that we can possibly free up to move to the supervision side," he told legislators.
Murphy said the report doesn't make clear that the department has many administrative assistants who perform various duties to assist parole and probation officers that is not common in other states.
For example, he said, these administrative assistants have duties ranging from initial assessments to drug testing to completing the paperwork to free up the parole and probation officers to perform their critical duties.
State Rep. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, asked whether department officials are changing their reporting methods and procedures "to give us a more accurate reflection of the way it really is" regarding caseloads.
Murphy replied, "Yes, sir."
Hammer questioned why that's being done now instead of previously.
"I just think that everyone needs to be totally transparent, and it needs to be the actual bodies that each officer is supervising," Murphy said. "Even though that officer that may handle paperwork for an individual that is in jail for 90 days or for six months, it is really not accurate [to report] that they are performing daily supervision, so we want to present the most accurate and transparent report that we can."
Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville, asked whether the caseload in Northwest Arkansas might be reduced as a result of department officials' study of possible changes.
Murphy said that "when vacancies occur in the areas that have lower caseloads, we have been slowly moving them to Northwest Arkansas. We are moving positions."
Two positions were recently moved to Northwest Arkansas to increase that region's ranks to 42 probation and parole positions.
In the department's initial review Monday, officials identified at least two other positions "that we can also move there as they become vacant" and reduce the caseload, Murphy told the legislators.
His goal is to develop these plans for changes within the next 90 days, including identifying which positions can be reclassified as parole and probation officers, and making recommendations within the next 90 days to the state Office of Personnel Management and Hutchinson.
"We are also looking at more electronic reporting. We are looking at a lot of different technology that we can use for cellphones, facial recognition to where we can identify where the offender is and at what time. ... Part of that technology is implemented now, and that will free up more and more time for the officers," he said.
Information for this article was contributed by John Moritz of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 08/15/2018