N.J. COURTS SEEK 150 MORE PAROLE OFFICERS

New Jersey needs 150 more parole officers to handle cases and millions of
dollars for additional drug treatment to keep parolees out of trouble,
state court officials told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.

Richard Williams, the administrative director of the courts, told the
committee that the Administrative Office of the Courts has made progress
since taking over the probation system from counties in 1996, but more
people and money are needed.

Williams said 452 probation officers supervise about 67,000 adults for an
average of 150 cases per officer. Another 200 officers oversee the cases of
about 14,000 juveniles. Over the past four years, spending on probation has
increased 10.6 percent to $99 million, but the overall state budget has
increased 31.4 percent, he said.

Committee Chairman Sen. William Gormley (R-Atlantic) said an $11.8 million
proposal by the AOC "strikes me as reasonable" and promised he would draft
a package of bills for the 2002 fiscal year budget.

The state has added 80 officers and is experimenting with drug courts,
where judges work with probation officers, police and drug treatment
facilities to keep a close eye on serious drug users, Williams said, but
the probation system needs more.

"What we are looking for is to bring those caseloads down," he said.

The AOC is requesting $5.3 million for additional parole officers in three
categories:

Ninety officers for intensive drug supervision to help deal with the 13,500
severe to moderate substance abusers, a move that would cut caseloads from
150 to 75 per officer.

Thirty officers to cut juvenile caseloads from 69 to 60 per officer.

Thirty officers for new specialized units to deal with time-consuming
cases. The new officers would keep sex offender caseloads under 50 and
domestic violence caseloads under 75.

The department also suggested spending $900,000 to expand a program that
pairs probation and police officers in high-crime areas of Newark,
Paterson, Plainfield and three other cities.

Finally, the proposal includes $5 million for increased drug treatment
programs.

The AOC suggested phasing in the new spending over two years.

Williams said additional drug treatment beds would ease the other major
problem with probation: More than 32,000 criminals are under orders to get
drug treatment, but two-thirds of them are not signed up, languishing for
months on waiting lists for treatment centers.

Among those testifying in favor of the new spending was Assemblywoman Mary
Previte (D-Camden), who works in the juvenile justice field.

"These unmanageable caseloads turn probation officers into paper pushers
and very little more," she said. "A sentence of probation becomes a
get-over. It becomes a joke. It becomes a monstrous failure that endangers
our community."

Gormley scheduled yesterday's hearing in response to a recent series of
editorials in The Star-Ledger that detailed severe problems in the
probation system.

David Kinney covers state government.