The preceding policy statement urges state and local government officials to identify the communities to which people released from prison and jail are returning in disproportionately large numbers. Serving and supervising people released from prison and jail in those neighborhoods--or wherever releasees live--is an essential element of any effort to re-engineer an organization's mission to one that is committed to making people's transition from prison or jail to the community safe and successful. This approach increases the accessibility of the services and promotes the ability of community corrections officers and providers to become familiar with the lives of the people they are supervising or serving. It also enables them to develop relationships with the families and neighbors of their clients and supervisees, so they can tap family and neighborhood strengths. These byproducts of serving and supervising people in the communities where they reside are keys to success for a population whom providers traditionally have struggled to engage and whom community corrections officers typically see once or twice a month.

Yet, getting service providers and community corrections officers into the community and out of their offices, which are typically located in large government buildings far from residential neighborhoods, represents a major departure from the existing operations of most organizations. It requires officers or providers to spend much of their shifts in the community, where they initially may feel less comfortable or safe than behind a desk in an office.

State and local government officials attempting to determine whether an organization's operations are truly neighborhood-based should ask the following three questions:

Corrections administrators (including, as always, community corrections officials) should be familiar to local elected officials and leaders of groups that are based in the communities that receive the majority of people released from prison or jail. To that end, corrections administrators should develop a comprehensive outreach initiative, participating in periodic meetings at churches, schools, and other places where residents of the community convene. Community corrections officers should participate on appropriate local community boards and task forces--including neighborhood watch groups, neighborhood revitalization projects, drug prevention task forces, and nonprofit boards--to increase visibility and improve partnerships in the neighborhoods where individuals that they supervise reside. (See Policy Statement 26, Recommendation e, for more on leveraging community-based networks to assist in supervision.) In Idaho, for example, corrections officers have started to serve on Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) in the communities to which prisoners return.

Corrections administrators should consider workload adjustments that will encourage such neighborhood involvement. While not all jurisdictions will immediately be able to reduce the size of community corrections officer caseloads, policymakers should seek to establish pilot projects that can demonstrate the impact of improving officers' visibility and ability to discharge their duties while participating in the life of the community.

Example: Proactive Community Supervision, Maryland Division of Parole and Probation

Under Proactive Community Supervision, the caseloads of community corrections agents are reduced so that they can spend more time in neighborhoods and work one-on-one with individuals whom they supervise. They develop relationships with the families, friends, and neighbors of these individuals to help establish an early-warning system and enable a quick response to problems. The agents have offices in the community, including in churches, and work closely with service providers. In one neighborhood, a facility has been developed which houses a clinic and employment training space in addition to the parole and probation offices.

Offering a storefront location in the community provides an ideal base from which community corrections officers or service providers can integrate themselves into the neighborhood and facilitate the transition of people from prison or jail to the community. To help increase their organizations' visibility and community presence and minimize the time that individuals under supervision must spend traveling to appointments, supervision agency administrators and other policymakers should consider establishing satellite offices within neighborhoods to which high concentrations of offenders return. These offices may be co-located with community policing stations to make the best use of supervision resources. Similarly, co-locating community corrections offices with service providers (such as One-Stop or benefits offices) can encourage compliance with conditions of release and successful engagement with those services. (See Policy Statement 26, Implementation of Supervision Strategy, Recommendation c, for more on supporting the supervision strategy through strategically decentralizing offices and points of contact in order to tap neighborhood strengths, increase cultural competency, and engage nontraditional community partners in community supervision.)

In addition to regularly scheduled appointments, community corrections officers should visit the homes of probationers and parolees, announced and unannounced, to monitor compliance with the terms of probation. House visits can enable community corrections officers to engage family members in the supervision process when appropriate. Family members are likely to have valuable perspectives on the person under supervision, and they may also take the place of long-term involvement with social service systems. (See Policy Statement 26, Implementing the Supervision Strategy, Recommendation e, for more on how community corrections officers can engage family members in the supervision process).

Example: Operation Night Light, Boston Police Department and the Office of the Commissioner of Probation for Massachusetts

This probation-police partnership is designed to enforce the terms of probation on juvenile offenders by conducting surprise visits to the homes, schools, and worksites of high-risk youth probationers between the hours of 7 pm and midnight. The Night Light team--a probation officer accompanying police officers on their nighttime patrol routes--targets up to 15 probationers who have difficulty complying with their terms of probation. In addition to monitoring compliance, the team talks with family members about the behavior of the probationer both at home and in the community.