The Correctional Service of Canada

The Correctional Service of Canada has a difficult job that many people cannot even fathom. Parole officers have difficult job managing and supervising offenders. Everyday, with the society’s safety in the back of their mind, they assist offenders to be law-abiding citizens, and keep them on the right track until they are no longer tied to the federal system. Most careers within the Criminal Justice system carry stress, challenges and serious expectations of helping offenders who enter into communities. Parole officer have a challenging job that is slowly becoming more interesting to correctional officers, however it is important to understand the role, stress and realizations that come with the career.

The Correctional Service of Canada is a “federal government agency responsible for administering sentences of a term of two years or more” (CSC website). Within the CSC there are many integral areas that help provide services to offenders to assist them to become law abiding citizens. Parole officers are a vital part of the offenders case management team, and help offenders with their correctional plans, and assist them within the institution, and when they are released in order to manage them safely in the community. Parole work is based on a “professional relationships with offenders and on studing the risk factors that contribute to the individual's criminal behaviour” (CSC website). A Parole Officer's most important skill is the “ability to accurately assess the behaviour of the offender. For it is on the basis of this assessment that the Parole Officer develops appropriate programming and treatment options to address the offender's behaviour”.

In order to successfully help offender’s to complete programming, and in order to assist the offender’s desire to take programming motivation is key. Motivation is one of the most important fundamental element in an offender’s path to successful reintegration. “Motivation has long been regarded in social psychology as key precondition for therapy and as an important factor for treatment” (csc print out). Offenders are usually required to attend violence, substance abuse, and sex offender programs ect, and it is important that parole officers help offenders reflect on what they have learnt form the programs and associate their coping techniques with real life stressors. “Effective staff can enhance motivation, but alternately ineffective staff may increase treatment resistance” (CSC printout). An effective parole officer will motivate offender’s to use their coping skills, and help offenders identify their triggers and motivate them to use support people around them to help them cope high risk situations. In order to be a productive influence on an offender in the community, “it is crucial that parole officer’s aim at motivating offender to engage in treatment; to progress by gaining the full benefits, and t eventually be able to sustain behaviour change” (cscnprintout).

A parole officer’s main duty is to supervise offenders in the community and manage their risk. “The job demands diverse professional skills, sound professional judgment and strong personal commitment” (CSC website). Parole officers make regular visits with offender with and without warning, contact their family, friends, and employers and get feedback from individuals who administer programs with offenders. Parole officers “must be aware of threats to their own safety and take proper precautions, but not be immobilized by these concerns” (CSC website). Parole officer write various progress reports, community assessments that determine the support of their family and friends, casework records that document interviews with offenders, or people who know the offender and write reports in order to elevate conditions that are unnecessary to manage their risk, or to recommend certain conditions to manage their risk in the community. Parole officers also utilize many contacts within the community in order to help the offender with employment, financial aid, looking for residency, programs ect. A parole officer’s job can be defined as part “police officer, part social worker” (CSC website).

Research studies have focused on role conflict, since parole officer’s jobs have two components. The two components are to enforce law and to help the offender. “Competing concerns for the community and the offender, the incompatibility of control tasks and assistance tasks, and the differing role conceptions of “law enforcer” and “social worker” (295). It can be difficult for some parole officers’ because you need to develop a certain trust with the offender, ensure that they know you are there to help them, but you are also there to ensure they are following their conditions. In some cases, it can be difficult to build trust, if the offender only looks at you as a law enforcer. Some studies have shown that “some officers develop an adaptive role in which the officers vacillate from role to role according to the client’s behaviour and criminal career (Hardyan, 1988; Mccleary, 1978 spet 1997 prison journal, p296). In 1985, Whitehead and Lindquist studied parole officer and found that 63% of officers experienced role conflict, and the role conflict contributed to greater job burnout and the unfriendly treatment of offenders (p.297). This study also found that 49% of officers studied were more than moderately or very stressed (p.115, job stress and burnout among parole).

Reviewing the job characteristics of a parole officer, it is obvious that there is a level of stress that can occur during a parole officer’s career. The three major sources of stress that parole officer’s identified are; high caseloads, paperwork overload and deadline pressures (helping probation and parole officers cope with stress). Community Parole officer’s have a caseload of 25 to 30 offenders (CSC website), however each offender may have a different frequency of contact (face-to-face contacts with parole officer). An offender may have a minimum of eight frequency of contacts with their parole officer during one month. Challenges to meet an offender each month could include: disability that prevents them from leaving the house, no transportation, offender’s job, or location. Another challenge may be For example: The Chilliwack Parole office supervises offenders up to Boston Bar. If you have to meet an offender in Boston Bar, it will take the majority of a full working day for an interview. Balancing interviews and meetings with caseloads each month can be a challenge. Paper overload can become stressful, because parole officers have to write reports on their caseload, and are also required to write reports requested by the institution. The institution may request an interview of a family member, spouse, or friend to see what their level of support is for the offender, before they are released into the community. Deadline pressures add to stress, because situations and interventions arise with offenders, and it can be hard to balance report writing, meeting deadlines and being a constant support person for an offender.

Parole officer’s safety and concerns are not identified as one of the main stressors with parole officers, however it is important to recognize. Within Canada, gangs have developed media attention, and have become more prominent. Parole officers have to attempt to build trust and a rapport with offenders they supervise, and in reality they have to supervise high profile and high-risk cases. Parole officers have to do their best to guide paroled gang members down the right path toward a productive lifestyle (gang article). Some offenders provide great challenges for parole officers’ job ensuring that they are safe on the streets and living pro-social lives. The importance of staff safety became a recent issue in a halfway house in Vancouver. A halfway house in Vancouver became the front page of many newspapers in October 2009, when individuals entered the house, hit an employee with a firearm and executed a gang member resident. The halfway house has now refused to take gang members, and many other halfway houses are following (province). This recent change will pressure the Community Correctional Centres, which house paroled offenders to take them, or they will be pressured to release them with no residency conditions whether, their case management team believes they need a residency condition, or not. The important element that needs to be remembered is that when an offender reaches statutory release they have to be let out to the community. The recent execution of the gang member in Vancouver expressed the realization of the violence between gang members and blatant disregard for employees and the public, since the half way house is situated on Cambie Street. Incidents in this magnitude may be rare, however it demonstrates the risks that parole officers face, and the immediate change that will impact these situations have on the Correctional Service of Canada when trying to find half way houses when releasing gang members.

All Canadian community parole officers remember the horrific tragedy in Yellowknife in 2004. Louise Pageter was a 34-year-old parole officer who attended a residence of an offender and did not return to the office when she was scheduled to come back. Staff members attempted to contact her, the attempts failed and the RCMP found her body in the offender’s apartment. This tragedy sparked a huge investigation and several new protocols were developed in regards to staff safety.

1. When a parole officer leaves the office, they set a time when they will provide their office with a call back. If they do not call the office at the time they stated, then a call is made. If the parole officer does not answer the phone, the authorities are called.

2. Parole offices develop a safe word. In an event where a situation occurs, or a staff member feels unsafe, they can call the office and use the safe word, and the office know that the parole officer is in danger.

After the investigation was completed, the Board of Investigation found that many aspects surrounding the details, and progress of the offender was left out of reports, and the focus on the index offence was lost, therefore the National Parole Board and the Correctional Service of Canada was not able to distinguish the realistic level of risk that the offender posed to the community. Many suggestions and recommendations arose after the Board completed their assessment of the tragedy in Yellowknife.

1. The parole officer assigned to the offender had previously suspended his parole; therefore she should have not been reassigned to the offender.
2. Parole officers need to write all significant aspects of the offenders case that are relevant to risk from the commencement of the offenders sentence (CSC).
3. Offender progress reports need to incorporate both positive and negative progress.

4. All reports written need to “remain focused on the index offence and consider the offender’s progress over the course of the entire sentence rather than during the most recent part”.

The job definitely has risks; however it is up to the individual to be cautious when dealing with parolees. The study conducted by Ireland and Berg (2007) found that participants interviewed went off their own intuition. The participants explained “to accomplish their duties in an effective and safe manner, they rely heavily on their verbal communication and a kind of instinctive sense or intuition about impending dangerous situations” (p.482).

Within the last couple of years, more correctional officers work towards a career in parole, apply for acting positions as a parole officer. Many critiques within corrections believe that correctional officers are too jaded, or too strict to become parole officers. An interesting study was conducted in Alabama, where they had an over crowding crisis in jails. It forced the state to build a program that released offenders who were already closed to being released and correctional officers worked as parole officers in order to supervise the inmates on the street. Two officers supervised a caseload of approximately 50 inmates in less populated areas (journal). The study then looked at job stress, and job satisfaction among the institutional officers acting as parole officers (SIR officers) and parole officers. SIR officers experienced less burnout, less stress and the highest job satisfaction, and they found that changes their job roles; the SIR officers saw their job as enriched (p.215). The major finding within the study was that the institutional correctional officers (SIR officers) who moved from the prison to the street, as a parole officer “was a favourable move in their estimation” (p.217). The second major finding was satisfaction that correctional officers expressed with offender contact- with the opportunity to assist offenders”. “Line correctional workers may not have as punitive as orientation as some might expect; to the contrary some evidence exists that these workers are supportive of offender change” (p.218).

Parole officers like many others who experience stress in their jobs, find ways to cope with the stress. There are two types of ways to cope with stress: Reactive and Proactive methods (coping with stress 71). Using sick time and mental health days to relieve stress is a reactive method. A proactive method is physical exercise. Many officers use their lunch breaks to take walks, or runs. When parole officers come back to the office, they feel rejuvenated, and refreshed. Some officers talk about their daily interactions with other staff members, or find personal ways to cope with stress out of work. Depending on the individual person, everyone needs to find a way to relieve stress. Stress can lead to headaches, mood changes, lack of sleep and energy. It is imperative to find ways to alleviate stress, or it will prevent an individual’s desire to go to work, which is vital in wanting to become a police officer.

Motivation is crucial, but it is also extremely imperative to build trust, rapport and have respectful encounters with the offender, and his family. Rapport is described as “the fruit of longstanding respect. The harmonious working relationship that characterizes rapport yields parolee compliance, agent safety, and trust and information from parolees’ families and the communities” (p.486). During a research study conducted by Ireland and Berg (2008), they interviewed police officer who “emphasize the importance of knowing the parolees’ families to obtain useful information and secure protection while out in the community” (p.483). The participants in the study “practice respect, characterized by courtesy and empathy, in their interactions with parolees and parolees’ families, homes and places of employment” (p.488). The participants describe their “perception of this respect evolving into rapport, whereby parole officers, parolee, and the community were engaged in a dynamic mutual relationship, which participants describe as being beneficial to all concerned” (p.488).