We’ve been looking into the issue of repeat offenders violating probation and parole again and again and being turned out onto the streets just to commit more crimes. In many cases, these career criminals are listed as homeless in their court records.
We spoke to two local judges about the issue and they said that in many ways the state ties their hands when dealing with these offenders. You probably won’t be surprised to find out that workers at the county’s adult probation department say the same thing.
We reached out to Chief Probation Officer Shawn Davis who, like the judges said that locally they have no control over what happens with repeat parole violators. “I cannot answer to parole as that is an agency that is run by the state and I have no control of.”
He said his agency does the best it can to help probationers. “We work with all probationers to help them turn their lives around. Unfortunately, some do not want the help.” Davis said judges decide who goes back to prison.
Judges have told us that the state frowns on sending people back to prison and that once individuals are back in the hands of the state, they have no control over them, so sometimes they prefer to keep them on probation.
Davis said that, to his knowledge, no one on probation is homeless. We’re still waiting for answers from the state over the situation with parolees. Though, it’s probably not a bad guess to say they’re going to say it’s not their fault and there’s nothing they can do.
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