Perceiving the Pendulum Swing: Probation/Parole Agents’ Navigation of Criminal Justice Policy Changes

• In Event: Organizational Change and Policy Reform in Community Corrections

Abstract

Community supervision has long been understood as a site of punishment and treatment, although emphases on one or the other have varied over time. Recently, probation and parole have seen a resurgence of an apparent rehabilitative ideal. Yet, little is known about how this policy shift is perceived and experienced by the agents tasked with incorporating emerging social work practices in their work. I ask: how do probation/parole agents understand and navigate changes to their work over time? How do they experience and receive macro-level criminal justice policy shifts at the micro level? I draw on data from interviews with 60 probation/parole agents in one U.S. Midwestern state. I find that agents situate changes to their daily work within a broader sociopolitical landscape, drawing on perceptions of national and state politics in detailing their own experiences with evidence-based practices. Agents receive the use of these practices (e.g., client skill-building) in heterogeneous ways, conditional in part on their career backgrounds and time spent as agents. In turn, as differing orientations toward the purpose of probation and parole emerge among colleagues, agents often encounter a divide, calling into question to what extent policy uniformity can ultimately be implemented on the ground.

Author

• Nicolette Bardele, Penn State University