Negotiating Surveillance and Managing Resistance: Exploring How Probation Officers Talk about Practicing Surveillance

• In Event: Effective Case Management Strategies in Community Corrections

Abstract

Research specific to the United Kingdom and the United States reveals the widespread use of electronic monitoring and drug testing used by probation officers in community corrections. This does not represent what is taking place in Canadian community corrections, where such technologies are not prominent surveillance practices. In this context, I interviewed probation officers in Edmonton, Alberta in an exploratory study. Interviewees were asked questions about the types of surveillance they conduct and how they think about surveillance in relation to their work. Findings from this research demonstrate that participants talked about surveillance technologies as necessary, even when describing their failings and inadequacies. Probation officers also relied heavily on surveillance carried out in the context of relationships, such as relationships between the probation officer and the individual under supervision, and the relationships the probation officer formed with agencies operating in the community, including the police. In this paper, I explore the ways probation officers talked about their work as constant processes of role negotiation. Additionally, this paper complicates the dichotomy between surveillance as control and surveillance as care (Abu-Laban, 2015). These processes will be discussed in this paper.

Author

• Kelsi J. Barkway, University of Alberta