Agency Head Outlines Parole and Probation Problems

Siobhan McDonough

Saturday, Feb. 10, 2001 | 10:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY - The agency that oversees Nevada's prison parolees admits it has been plagued by high employee turnover, weak management and poor training.

"There's no continuity," the director of the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety told lawmakers Friday. "We have a significant high turnover."

"You're talking to someone within the department one day and six months later that person's gone," Richard Kirkland said. "That's a difficult situation."

The turnover in the DMV's Parole and Probation Division is just one of the problems, Kirkland told the Assembly Judiciary Committee. The division has 480 authorized positions, 342 of which turned over within the past four years.

Other flaws noted in a legislative audit last year included poor supervision, weak management and inadequate training.

In response to the audit, the agency is looking at better management controls, more efficient operations, streamlining and improving training of officers.

"I do not disagree with 98 percent of the audit. We were not doing a good job," Kirkland said. "But I want to emphasize that was then. This is now."

One reason for the high turnover is low pay - $28,000 a year for a starting parole and probation officer. Starting salaries of police officers in Reno is $36,000 and in Las Vegas it's $42,000.

"The bottom line is you get what you pay for," Kirkland said.

Parole and probation officers supervise more than 10,000 criminal offenders, the audit shows. But of 62 offender files reviewed, the division made only 60 percent of the required contacts.

The report also indicated that the division didn't make enough effort to perform unannounced home visits, aimed at detecting illegal or prohibited activity.

The information concerned several committee members, including Judiciary Chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks.

"How can we let someone out on the streets for three months and never see them? Do they have a job? Do they stay off drugs? Are they following conditions of parole? We expect the division to do correctional work," Anderson said.

Anderson also said more support would help parole officers deal with potentially dangerous situations.

"We don't give them any kind of backup. There's not enough technical support," he said. "We need to support officers in the field, make conditions better for them and try to keep them doing what they need to do."

Otherwise, he and others were glad to hear that steps were being taken to improve the parole system.

"It has had a tough time historically," Anderson said. "It's had problems beyond proportion - being understaffed and underfunded. It's taking astounding steps toward progress."