Probation Department Kept Busy

* Regarding your June 15 editorial “Plugging Probation’s Holes”:

I very much appreciate The Times’ interest in the criminal justice system as a whole and realization that all portions need to be adequately funded, or the weakness has major repercussions.

I like the analogy you made of the water hose patched with duct tape. One part gets repaired, only to have another portion build up with pressure. As you implied, the Probation Department often becomes that portion of the criminal justice system which builds up with pressure from too many adults and juveniles to supervise, and a more serious type of offender.

However, there are a couple of statements made in the editorial which I would like to clarify for your readers:

It is implied that probation officers supervise all offenders released from jail early due to overcrowding. That’s not completely true. Our officers supervise offenders who are placed on supervised probation by the courts. Often, that includes offenders who are also serving local jail sentences. At present, we have 6,000 juvenile and 13,000 adults under the supervision of this department.

The editorial stated that the Probation Department was forced “to lay off 60 workers following the 1994 bankruptcy, including 10 of its 91 probation officers.” In the six months following the bankruptcy, the department lost 129 positions, but only 26 full-time staff had to be laid off. The others left to find other jobs or retired. The “91 probation officers” refers to officers who have strictly generic adult or juvenile supervision caseloads. But we have more officers than that--238 in all. They are working with specialized caseloads (gang members, drug dealers or youths in foster homes, for example), handle very large supervision caseloads or do specialized services for the courts (investigations, court reports, court officers). All in all, we are 28 deputy probation officers short of what we need to handle all of the work we currently have.

These items do not change the overall theme of your editorial or detract from the importance of maintaining a balanced, coordinated effort to attack crime in Orange County. I commend your newspaper for your aggressive coverage and interest in criminal justice and the full range of public protection programs our citizens expect and deserve.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER

Chief Probation Officer

Santa Ana