The Role of Human Service Providers During Community Supervision PDF

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE The Role of Human Service Providers During Community Su...

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE The Role of Human Service Providers During Community Supervision EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Cecelia Klingele, J.D. September 2021 U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs 810 Seventh St. N.W. Washington, DC 20531 Jennifer Scherer, Ph.D. Acting Director, National Institute of Justice This and other publications and products of the National Institute of Justice can be found at: National Institute of Justice Strengthen Science Advance Justice NIJ.ojp.gov Office of Justice Programs Building Solutions Supporting Communities Advancing Justice OJP.gov The National Institute of Justice is the research, development, and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. NIJ’s mission is to advance scientific research, development, and evaluation to enhance the administration of justice and public safety. The National Institute of Justice is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the Office for Victims of Crime; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. This paper was prepared with support from the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, under contract number GS-00F-219CA. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Department of Justice. NIJ would like to thank the Office of Human Services Policy within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for their support and input on these papers. Photo Source: ©Rob Marmion/Shutterstock.com  National Institute of Justice | NIJ.ojp.gov Executive Summary One of every 58 American adults is currently under some form of community correctional supervision.1 People placed on community supervision often have signifcant human service needs, some of which are addressed through correctional agency resources, but most of which are met, if at all, through community-based human service agencies. People on community supervision connect to human service agencies through a variety of channels. Sometimes they are court-ordered to engage with treatment programs, obtain employment, or pay child support as a condition of supervision. In these cases, failure to cooperate with human service agencies can result in revocation of community supervision and incarceration in jails or prisons. In addition, probation or parole offcers frequently refer people on supervision to human service agencies for additional assistance with meeting basic human needs, including housing, food, and child care. Finally, many people on probation and parole engage (voluntarily and involuntarily) with human service agencies, including child welfare departments and local community health providers, without the knowledge or involvement of community corrections agencies. In most cases, there is typically little or no coordination between these multiple service providers — a fact that can lead to conficting, duplicative, and ineffcient service delivery. This paper summarizes what is known about the human service needs of people on supervision, and catalogs the ways in which various forms of community supervision can operate to either facilitate or impede the meaningful delivery of programs, treatment, and other services to people on probation, parole, and pretrial release. Finally, this paper proposes three keys targets for improving the effcient and effective delivery of human services to people on community supervision: Streamlining access to human services upon entry to pretrial or probation supervision, and before release to parole. Creating mechanisms at the local and state levels to ensure continuity of high-priority services for those entering from or exiting to correctional settings. Collaborating with clients, community corrections agencies, and human service providers to improve consistency in human service and correctional system expectations for service recipients. 1 DANIELLE K AEBLE & MARIEL ALPER, BUREAU OF JUST. STAT., PROBATION & PAROLE IN THE UNITED STATES, 2017-2018 3, T.1 & T.2 (2020), https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ppus1718.pdf. The Role of Human Service Providers During Community Supervision 1 National Institute of Justice | NIJ.ojp.gov The Structure of Community Following all rules of supervision can be diffcult, and consequently violations of Supervision supervision conditions remain common. Community supervision can take many Ordinarily, minor violations result in forms, but three are most common: sanctions ranging from a reprimand pretrial supervision, probation, and to a few weeks in jail. Short jail stays parole. Pretrial supervision refers to the are not uncommon among persons on conditional release of people who have probation or parole. They can serve both been charged with a crime, and who must as punishments for less serious violations follow conditions set by the court in order and as investigative tools when a violation to remain in the community awaiting trial. is alleged. Although less punitive than The structure of pretrial supervision varies revocation, these “short stays” can disrupt widely; defendants can be supervised by employment, family life, and housing. jail staff, probation agents, or employees When lesser sanctions have not deterred of nonproft organizations. Probation is signifcant misconduct or when serious a community-based sanction imposed by rule violations occur, revocation and a court as punishment for a crime. It is incarceration often follow. the most common sentence in America: 56% of the 6.6 million people serving Although community corrections agencies sentences in the United States at the end make efforts to address the broad needs of 2016 were serving a term of probation. of people on supervision, many factors Finally, parole (and other types of post- limit their ability to do so. Resource incarceral supervision) impose a period limitations, lack of specialized training of supervision after release from custody. in nonsurveillance functions, and the In 2018, more than 878,000 people were sheer breadth of the needs of people on serving some form of parole or other post- community supervision all reduce the release supervision. capacity of community corrections agencies to address the needs of the people they All three forms of community supervision supervise. There is also broad disagreement require people to comply with specifc among and within community supervision release conditions or face the threat of agencies about how agents should respond incarceration, whether in jail or prison. to the human service needs of those they Courts and community supervision agencies supervise. Some agents see themselves as impose and enforce a broad array of social workers and community advocates conditions of supervision. Estimates suggest whose job is to connect those on probation that the average number of standard or parole with a wide array of programs, conditions typically exceeds a dozen, a some of which they may provide one-on- number that increases when “special” one. Other agents see their role as that conditions are added to address defendant- of a service broker whose job is to refer specifc concerns. people on supervision to needed programs, but who is not responsible for ensuring There is wide variation in how often people that a meaningful connection has been are required to see their community made. Finally, some offcers see themselves supervision agents and what kind of primarily as rule enforcers, whose job supervision they receive. The intensity of is merely to ensure compliance with supervision and the rigidity of supervising court orders. agents’ expectations can have profound effects on the ability of people to comply However agents and agencies understand with the terms of their supervision and to their roles, limited resources combined engage meaningfully with other services. with the many needs of people under 2 The Role of Human Service Providers During Community Supervision  National Institute of Justice | NIJ.ojp.gov supervision frequently create signifcant (including the joint HUD-Veterans service gaps. As a result, many individuals Affairs Supportive Housing Program), on supervision are not provided with the Housing Choice Voucher Program, and social services they need during their Section 8 project-based rental assistance terms of supervision. When they do receive program (these programs exclude needed services, lack of coordination from public housing people with some between human service and correctional categories of criminal conviction); agencies can easily disrupt hard-won Second Chance Act grants. progress. Gaps in service during reentry can cause people with chronic mental illness Food. Isolated studies examining to lose access to much-needed medication, hunger among persons on probation and jail sanctions for minor rule violations or parole have found staggeringly high can result in the loss of employment or amounts of food insecurity, ranging even housing. In short, the current system is from 70% to 90% across samples. These often painfully ineffcient. studies suggest that people on both probation or parole (along with their families) are at heightened risk for Human Service Needs hunger and its related morbidities, such as malnutrition. of People on Community Supervision Major federal programs that address this area of need: The U.S. Department of The human service needs of people on Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition supervision have not been studied with as Assistance Program (SNAP) Temporary much care as have the needs of people who Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) are incarcerated. Data remain particularly program, which is administered by thin with respect to those on probation the states (individuals with histories and those on pretrial release. Nonetheless, of drug conviction are ineligible for people on community supervision clearly or have limited access to benefits in face a host of social welfare challenges at some states). rates higher than the general population. They break down into seven major areas Physical Health. People on community of need: supervision suffer from chronic physical health challenges (including asthma Housing. Stable, long-term housing and sexually transmitted diseases) and is difficult to come by for people on die at rates far exceeding the general supervision, especially those who have population. Leading causes of death experienced incarceration. Many include overdose, homicide, suicide, recently released people live with cardiovascular disease, and cancer. family or friends; few have the means Rates of health insurance coverage have to live alone. In cases of emergency, improved for these individuals since community supervision agencies can 2014, but they remain underinsured offer those on probation or parole compared to the general population. short-term assistance, but correctional agencies are typically unable to provide Major federal programs that address this longer-term housing support. area of need: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Medicaid Major federal programs that address this and Medicare programs, which provide area of need: The U.S. Department of health coverage to the qualifying poor, Housing and Urban Development’s elderly, and disabled; the Social Security (HUD) Public Housing Program Administration’s Supplemental Security The Role of Human Service Providers During Community Supervision 3 National Institute of Justice | NIJ.ojp.gov Income and Social Security Disability work that has been linked to lower Insurance programs, which offer cash to rates of recidivism. Those on probation qualifying elderly and disabled people; or parole often lack the education and the U.S. Department of Veterans and soft skills needed to obtain and Affairs’ Health Care for Re-Entry retain work in the skilled labor market. Veterans program. Additionally, their ability to secure work is impeded by discrimination, Substance Use Disorders and Other stagnant labor markets, employment Behavioral Health Conditions. Almost licensing restrictions, and sometimes by half of individuals on community supervision itself.2 supervision are known to have a substance use disorder (a rate two to Major federal programs that address this three times higher than that found in area of need: SNAP Employment and the general population), and this group Training Programs, administered by the suffers from serious mental health states; U.S. Department of Education- problems at rates from two to four times funded vocational rehabilitation that of the general population. Large programs for people with physical, treatment gaps exist with respect to intellectual, or emotional disabilities available and appropriate treatment for that interfere with recipients’ ability to people on supervision with behavioral work; the U.S. Department of Labor- health needs, a problem complicated by funded Reentry Projects program; a lack of sufficient community providers and the U.S. Department of Justice’s and supervision policies hostile to some Second Chance Act Adult Reentry forms of evidence-based treatment. and Employment Strategic Planning Program, which provides grants for Major federal programs that address this projects that increase job readiness for area of need: The U.S. Department of formerly incarcerated people. Health and Human Services’ Medicaid and Medicare programs, and the Social Parenting-Related Needs. Shockingly Security Administration’s Supplemental few data are available about the number Security Income and Social Security of people on community supervision Disability Insurance programs. who are also parents of minor children. Nonetheless, it is easy to infer that many Vocational Training and Employment. people on supervision are parents of Although people on supervision often minor children, juggling the many point to employment as a primary need, practical, financial, and emotional data on the workforce engagement obligations that accompany child of those on probation or parole are rearing. For people on supervision in limited. However, apparent from the community, parenting needs arise current studies is that people on in three primary areas: child care supervision — and particularly people assistance, child support payment, and on parole — face significant obstacles child welfare court involvement. to securing the type of meaningful 2 See Darren Wheelock, Christopher Uggen & Heather Hlavka, Employment Restrictions for Individuals with Felon Status and Racial Inequality in the Labor Market, in GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON RE-ENTRY (IKPONWOSA EKUNWE, ED. 2011); Amanda Agan & Sonja Starr, Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Racial Discrimination: A Field Experiment, 133 QUART. J. ECON. 191 (2018). 4 The Role of Human Service Providers During Community Supervision  National Institute of Justice | NIJ.ojp.gov Major federal programs that address this Special Considerations area of need: Assistance with child care is provided largely by state grants (some for Serving People on funded through the Child Care and Community Supervision Development Block Grant Program) Given the broad spectrum of human and through Head Start programs, services from which people on supervision designed to promote school readiness can beneft and the number of programs for children from birth to age five; involved in delivering these services, state child support agencies calculate opportunities for streamlining service the amount of child support due to delivery abound. Among these, three custodial parents or from noncustodial areas stand out as top priorities, all of parents, and state and county child which require intentional policies and welfare agencies provide both services collaborative efforts among multisystem and surveillance for parents whose providers and agencies. The frst priority children are found to be in need of is improving access to human services protection or services. upon entry to pretrial or probation supervision, and before release to parole. Transportation. Although not The second is ensuring the continuity of ordinarily classified as a human service high-priority services for those entering need, lack of reliable and efficient from or exiting to correctional settings. transportation significantly impedes The third is forming collaborations engagement with human services for with clients, community corrections people on community supervision. agencies, and human service providers This problem is especially pressing to improve consistency in human service for people on probation or parole and correctional system expectations for who live in rural communities without service recipients. public transportation.3 In addition to the often-prohibitive costs of vehicle People on supervision face a host of barriers ownership and maintenance, people on to accessing programs, from residential supervision often face the additional instability to scheduling diffculties created barriers of license forfeiture, imposed by their conditions of supervision. The either as punishment for a crime or in most effective way to reduce these access response to nonpayment of fines and barriers is to bring programs — or at least fees. Even when public transportation is applications for benefts and programs — available, it can be costly and inefficient. to clients. This process can take many forms, from placing service facilitators in Major federal programs that address supervision offces to training community this area of need: Few, outside of corrections agents on how to assist potential reimbursements for transportation to clients in completing required paperwork medical appointments for those insured and obtaining necessary supporting through Medicaid. documentation. In order to provide timely and effective intervention, efforts to connect clients with services should 3 Jay Whetzel & Aaron F. McGrath, Jr., Ten Years Gone: Leveraging Second Chance Act 2.0 to Improve Outcomes, 83-June FED. PROBATION 23, 29 (2019). The Role of Human Service Providers During Community Supervision 5 National Institute of Justice | NIJ.ojp.gov occur as soon as possible after people are expectations for clients across agencies placed on pretrial supervision or probation, and programs. Too often, the expectations and in advance of release from jail or set for program participants or benefts prison custody. recipients force them to choose between competing rules and regulations imposed In addition to increasing access to needed by community corrections agents and programs by supporting and simplifying specifc service providers, or ask them the application process, human service to engage in an unrealistic number of agencies can play a role in reducing simultaneous programs. In complex cases service gaps that occur when people involving multiple programs, efforts should return to the community after a period be made to staff cases at regular intervals, of incarceration or are incarcerated while helping clients (with the permission of receiving services in a community setting. community corrections) to prioritize Treatment gains made in community or programmatic needs. Every effort should institutional settings are often lost when be made to prioritize necessities of living, people transition between settings, or followed by programs designed to address when supervision ends. Delays in access to the client’s most pressing needs, and medication and programming can lead to fnally by other obligations (such as court- relapse (or even death), and can erase much ordered community service or educational of the progress made in prior treatment programming). Clients should be included programs. Many of these risks can be in decision-making and given clear (ideally mitigated with better transitional planning. written) guidance about the expectations of Human service agencies, community all providers. corrections, jails, and prisons should collaborate regularly. This collaboration Although community corrections and should occur at the administrative level — other criminal justice agencies engage in to adopt information-sharing policies and a substantial amount of human service iron out funding issues — and also at the facilitation, community corrections individual case level — to coordinate care agencies and their employees are not and navigate waitlists for high-priority uniformly trained in social work or other services, such as substance use treatment service-oriented felds. Their missions and physical and behavioral health care are grounded in the enforcement of for those with signifcant disabilities or court orders, and therefore community otherwise at high risk of harm from gaps supervision agents often emphasize in care. surveillance and control over addressing the underlying needs of people on supervision. Human service agencies can dramatically Although community corrections agents improve the effectiveness of services for routinely offer some direct services and people on supervision by collaborating refer clients to other community services, with other human service agencies, agents do not routinely receive ongoing community corrections agencies, and education in best practices for helping clients themselves to create consistent people access or remain connected with 6 The Role of Human Service Providers During Community Supervision  National Institute of Justice | NIJ.ojp.gov various services and providers. Human and beneftting from available human service agencies can and should take a service programs. Moreover, because leadership role in educating their criminal engaging in these system improvements is justice counterparts about best practices in not cost-free, agencies should work together service delivery, and work to problem-solve to identify federal, state, and private around the obstacles that prevent people on resources to cover the start-up costs of community supervision from fully accessing building ongoing collaborations. To read the full white paper, go to https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/302099.pdf. The Role of Human Service Providers During Community Supervision 7