Probation officials would spend money on new positions

RALEIGH, Oct 07, 2008 (The News & Observer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- CUFF | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- State probation officials outlined today how they'd like to spend $2.5 million given to them this year by the state legislature at a hearing held in Raleigh by the state's Joint Legislative Correction, Crime Control and Juvenile Justice Oversight Committee.

Most of the money -- $1.7 million -- would go to creating news positions for 20 probation officers and six supervisors.

But Division of Community Corrections Director Robert Guy acknowledged that the probation department is continuing to battle high vacancy rates, with officers routinely leaving for better paying jobs. Salaries range from $31,000 to $50,000 for staring officers but few officers end up making much more than the mid-range of $45,000 a year, despite years or decades of experience, Guy said.

"We are not being competitive in the hiring market," he said. Local police departments start hiring at $37,000 a year without requirement of four-year degrees, he said.

High turnover means that remaining officers end up with caseloads much higher than what policy calls for, and offenders are left without the oversight they need, Guy said.

Mismanagement of both offices came to light after the arrests of probationers Demario Atwater, 22, and Laurence Lovette Jr., 17, both of whom were charged with first-degree murder in connection with the March kidnapping and shooting death of UNC-Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson. Lovette is also one of several suspects named in the January killing of Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato.

Both had been on probation at the time of the killings. But Atwater had gone nearly a year since seeing anyone with the Wake probation officers, and subsequent arrests and convictions appeared to have gone unnoticed as his case was shifted from officer to officer. Lovette had just been placed on adult probation, but an extensive juvenile record was not made available because of state laws that define juvenile records as confidential information.

The N.C. Department of Correction conducted audits of the Wake and Durham offices, and asked a federal agency, the National Institute of Corrections, to come in and assess the statewide program. The state legislature, in , allocated $2.5 million to be used after considering the NIC's assessment as well as $5 million to start a pilot program in Wake County to coordinate probation, court, police and jail technology systems. The pilot program is being developed by SAS of Cary, said David McCoy, the N.C. State Controller.

Currently, all of those technology systems operate independent of each other and information is not always shared, McCoy said.

"They don't talk to each other," he said. Coordinating the systems "may save lives," McCoy said.

McCoy said he didn't know what the final cost would be if the pilot program is expanded to North Carolina's other 99 counties.

For a fuller report on Tuesday's meeting, please read tomorrow's version of the News & Observer in print or online.

Staff writer Sarah Ovaska can be reached at sarah.ovaska@newsobserver.com.

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