Probation and parole officers

ALABAMA BUREAU OF PARDONS AND PAROLES

CLAY HENSON Officer in Charge

SCOTT KING

Officer Probation and parole officers with the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles protect communities by supervising parolees and probationers through risk assessments, home visits, drug screenings and investigations. Rehabilitation for adult offenders is a crucial element of the job. In Franklin County, the Russellville Field Office includes senior officer in charge Officer Clay Henson, Officer Scott King and administrative support assistant Delta Smith.

Henson has been with the Bureau in the Russellville field office for 18 years, and Scott has been in the role about five years.

“This office usually supervises 150-200 people at any given time,” said Henson. “It’s a smaller caseload than a lot of other offices in bigger areas, but most of your rural offices are going to have around that number.”

Day to day, Henson and King have people reporting into their office – located in the Byars Building in downtown Russellville –and also spend time visiting parolees residences to ensure they are living where they say they are. The job also involves helping former felons regain rights they have lost, such as gun rights and voting rights. “No two days are the same,” Henson said, “and it’s very different from being a patrol officer or something like that.”

“Under the present adult probation law,” explains the state website, “Alabama has a statewide uniform administration of probation. Probation officers are sworn law enforcement officers with arrest powers and must meet the training requirements of the Peace Officers Minimum Standards and Training Act.”

In a world without probation and parole officers, “you would either have to have a lot more jail space or you would have a lot more crime,” Henson said. “Drug use would be out of control.”

“You can’t put everybody in prison. There’s only so much room, no matter how big a prison is,” Henson said. “We’re here to help the people who are capable of living in the community but have issues that could cause them to get back into trouble.” Henson and Green work to lessen that risk of recidivism. There’s one big misconception people have about Franklin County’s juvenile probation officers. The fact is, juvenile probation officers are not law enforcement; rather, they are officers of the court.

Acting under the direction of juvenile court judge Paula McDowell, Kevin Strickland and Jacob Green carry out an array of duties related to overseeing juvenile offenders – which can include those who have committed a crime as well runaways, truancy and dependency cases. The pair are involved as intake officers for any case coming before the court, and they enforce the penalties handed down by McDowell, whether that’s setting a child or family up with counseling, working within the school system to address a truancy issue or facilitating the placement of a child into a different living situation or juvenile detention. “Basically, our jobs are to do whatever the juvenile court judge wants us to do,” Strickland explained. “We make sure they are following the rules of probation, attending school, maintaining passing grades … We’re just making sure people are doing what the judge has ordered them to do,” – or, in the case of those who violate their probation restrictions, “getting them back before the court to face whatever consequences they may get.”

Prior to 2000, juvenile probation officers were county employees. Strickland said that structure meant juvenile cases were processed differently from county to county. With an eye toward creating more uniformity, the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts took over the juvenile probation system in 2000.

Although Strickland and Green perform similar duties to law enforcement officers in some ways, their designation as officers of the court sets them apart from other LEOs –a distinction which Strickland said has at times been confusing for officers and regular citizens alike.

In their role as juvenile probation officers, Strickland and Green find that each day is different. “You’re generally

KEVIN STRICKLAND Chief juvenile probation officer

JACOB GREEN Juvenile probation officer doing different things different days, not doing the same thing all the time, so that helps keep it interesting,” said Strickland, who has been a juvenile probation officer for 28 years. “Even if you’re processing the same thing, it’s different because it’s different people.” He said being able to help people is rewarding, although “some people don’t want to be helped. That’s frustrating.”

Strickland said people need to understand that when it comes to the terms of a juvenile sentence, each instance is different and must be handled differently – and according to the law. Even cases that might appear similar from the outside can warrant vastly different consequences.