About the Report The Report, Part II: Review of the Re-Entry Process:

chapters and policy statements:
About the Report of the Re-Entry Council

Policy Statement 26, Research Highlight 2

Parole and probation officer caseloads are typically high, translating to minimal personal contact and supervision.

The increase in the prison population has had the predictable impact of increasing the parole population, translating into bigger caseloads for parole officers. In the 1970s, the average parole officer supervised a caseload of 45 parolees. [1]   Today, most officers are responsible for about 70 parolees-about twice as many as some consider an ideal caseload. [2]   Such high caseloads necessarily translate into only nominal supervision. More than 80 percent of parolees are supervised on "regular" caseloads, meeting with a parole officer once or twice a month for an average of 15 minutes per visit. [3]   Probation caseloads are even higher than parole caseloads, averaging about 130 probationers per officer. [4]  

  1. Joan Petersilia, "When Prisoners Return to the Community: Political, Economic, and Social Consequences," US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Sentencing & Corrections: Issues for the 21st Century, no. 9 (November 2000). back
  2. Travis, Jeremy, Amy L. Solomon, and Michelle Waul, “From Prison to Home: The Dimensions and Consequences of Prisoner Reentry,” Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2001: 21. back
  3. Ibid. back
  4. Camille G. Camp and George M. Camp, The Corrections Yearbook 2001 (Middletown, CT: Criminal Justice Institute, 2002). back
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