 You're watching FJTN, the Federal Judicial Television Network. Welcome everybody. I'm Kate Leinet, a senior education specialist with the Federal Judicial Center. It is an honor to host this program and have the opportunity to provide you with an overview of both the changes and revisions to Monograph 109, the supervision of federal offenders. As Oliver Wendell Holmes, the noted jurist once said, the greatest thing in the world is not so much where we are, but in which direction we are moving. And hopefully the changes to the 109 will help move all of us toward a new era in community corrections. To help us get started, we have messages for you from two of our system's leaders, John Hughes, who will officially announce Judicial Conference approval of the Monograph, and Gary Howard, who will describe his district's experience with the new principles. First, let's hear from John Hughes. Hello, I'm John Hughes, and I'm very pleased to say that the revised Monograph 109, Supervision of Federal Offenders, was endorsed by the Committee on Criminal Law in December 2002 and approved for distribution in March 2003 by the Judicial Conference of the United States. The policies reflected in the new Monograph are now in effect. The action by the Judicial Conference marks the culmination of a three-year effort by an ad hoc working group appointed by the Director of the Administrative Office in January 2000. Members of that group included chiefs, deputy chiefs, and supervising officers from different parts of the country, plus a representative from the Federal Judicial Center. We tasked the group with reviewing the following areas, transitional services, correctional treatment, technical violation policy and practices, and the development of performance measures. The group sought input from across the system and received plenty of good advice from line officers as well as specialists and managers. Input was also sought from other key stakeholders, including the Bureau of Prisons, the Sentencing Commission, the Parole Commission, and the Federal Judicial Center. The group took into account changes in the offender population since the last monograph was issued and incorporated new statutory and case law requirements as well. Special attention was given to current research and community corrections, best practices in the courts, and the findings of program reviews. It was truly a comprehensive effort. Of special note, the new monograph clearly lays out the principles of good supervision and defines the desired outcomes of supervision. It also clearly defines the role of a probation officer as a community corrections professional, whose job it is to make a difference in the lives of people under supervision and provide an important service to the court and the public. I am confident that the monograph will move the system forward in the right direction so that United States probation officers will be able to say for many years to come that their work represents the very best in community corrections. Thanks John for your thoughtful remarks. By the way, I'd like to extend a personal thanks to John for inviting me to represent the FJC on the Supervision Working Group. Now let's hear from Gary Howard, who is the Chief Probation Officer for the District of Kansas and Chair of the Chiefs Advisory Group. Howard's district served as a pilot district for the revised monograph. He was in town recently for the Chiefs Advisory Group meeting and talked to us about his perspective. The Chiefs Advisory Group was very involved in this initiative, believing that it was important to be at the forefront of any policy related to supervision in our work. The Adhok Supervision Work Group was chaired by a former CAG member, Dave Sanders, who has since retired from the District of Nevada. The Adhok work group was able to bring initiatives to the table with the CAG so that we could discuss ways to develop solutions for those issues. We were also able to promote continuity by focusing on lessons learned and successes from the original monograph to build on the revised monograph. The new monograph is very consistent with the Chief's consensus on the direction for our system. It represents principles and conceptual thinking that was developed through workshops and strategic planning sessions at national chief's conferences, which in turn are supported by the Federal Judicial Center. It also laid the groundwork for the Chief's Charter for Excellence, a way in which for us to develop or articulate goals and values that are important to our system. For example, we're part of the community and the community expects that we will support public safety in our work. We're also part of the court family that expects us to work with fairness, integrity and our work, as well as regard and respect for the people we work with. We're also part of the national criminal justice system that in turn expects us to work collaboratively with each other and with outside agencies. All of those values are supported by the new monograph. Our Wichita Division has piloted the case planning process and we've observed a more collaborative exchange between the officer and the supervisor with regard to the work. We've seen that it promotes a more meaningful dialogue and common understanding of supervision policy and mutual expectations. But I would add that we owe it to our officers out there knocking on doors to give them our best thinking and our best tools to do the job with. I believe the revised supervision monograph is one of those best tools. Good comments, Gary. Thank you. So that's the backdrop. Now, let's move on to some more in-depth discussion. Joining me in the studio are Elaine Terrenze, Chief U.S. Probation Officer for the Middle District of Florida, Janeanne Mort, Senior U.S. Probation Officer for the Western District of Missouri, Mike Thompson, Supervising U.S. Probation Officer for the Southern District of Florida, and Sheila Johnson, Supervising U.S. Probation Officer for the Southern District of Texas. We'll be talking about what went into the making of Monograph 109. Some of its main characteristics, and later in the program, how you can implement it in your district. So let's start with some background from Elaine. Elaine, you and I spent many a year together working on this monograph and sitting in lots of meetings. Did you give the group a sense of what those meetings were like and what the principles are that came out of the meetings? Kate, remember the discussions? They were very, very lively. John Hughes put together a highly experienced and diverse group of people to work on this project, and then we recruited more people. And everybody involved felt passionately about supervision. Our discussion began with the principles of the old 109 that we most valued. The individualized approach to supervision was its hallmark, and we really wanted to preserve that. The other thing that the old 109 had brought to us was this focus on risk control. And we believed that that was also essential. We expanded that from risk control to risk management, which we felt better described what we actually do as community corrections professionals. We then looked to the district reviews. We looked to academic research. And we looked at the best practices across the district, across the country. We didn't try to reinvent supervision. Rather, what we tried to do was describe and capture the good supervision that was going on out there. So what did the best supervision look like? It looked, it was goal directed. It was community-based rather than office-bound, and it was flexible. The strongest officers also had good collaboration between the officers, the specialists, and the supervisors that they worked with. So what we tried to do was to develop a planning process that would support those principles. Okay. One of the things we know is that the group came up with a model for supervision that really shows graphically the good principles of supervision. Can you describe that for us? Well we started with the core. A position we could all agree on is risk management. We are constantly investigating, assessing, planning, implementing, and then evaluating and adjusting our response to new information or the offender's actions. It's a fluid process. What we do with any offender is guided by the conditions of release, which provide the foundation of our supervision efforts. From the beginning, we all agreed and research indicates that the most successful and productive officers are balanced in their approach to supervision. They cannot be classified as either law enforcement or social work oriented. It's the blending of the controlling strategies and the correctional interventions used appropriately with each offender that is most productive. As you can see in the model, these strategies make up the sides of the triangle to emphasize the need to use both. We left the most important part of the model for last because it was the most difficult to define, but everything we do has to work towards those desired outcomes. This is something the system has never articulated in writing for everyone to understand before. Now that we have clarified the outcomes, every officer, specialist, and supervisor knows what we're working toward. Okay. Both you and John here has referred to the desired outcomes. Can you really tell us exactly what the desired outcomes are? The desired outcomes are those things that we think of when we think of supervision. The first and primary is the execution of the sentence. That's our statutory mandate. Also the protection of the community by reducing the risk of recidivism. In addition, maximizing offender success during the period of supervision and beyond to reduce the risk of recidivism in the future. That and beyond piece is something that really got added for this particular monograph. We had a lot of discussion about the and beyond piece. We firmly believed that the work that we do goes beyond the period of supervision. That fundamentally, we add value in that the supervision process is a valuable process and that the offender leaves supervision better prepared to remain crime free in the future. Okay. An important part of what we do. The other thing that you talked about was offender success and we already know from a lot of the responses to the draft monograph that there was a real debate about the difference between offender success and is that the same as officer success. So go through that discussion Elaine. That was another very, very animated discussion that we had. Clearly that we have to be able to separate offender success from officer success. We all have those strong anecdotal stories where an officer has done a very thorough investigation, has caught criminal activity early in the process and has removed a very dangerous offender from the community. And certainly that is a success for the community and it's a success for the officer. But no one would look at that and say that the offender was successful. When we look and talk about offender success, what we're really talking about is that first and primary, he doesn't commit any new crimes. That he's held accountable for his previous criminal activities, restitution is collected, he serves that sentence. And also there's the and beyond piece that he's better prepared for the future to remain crime free in the future. Okay, thanks Elaine. Let me take off to Jane Ann Mort who is our line officer who's out there supervising people. And if you think about offender success, what does that mean to you as a line officer? Yeah, we have to look at offenders not just successfully completing the supervision. But as you see on the graph, success means no criminal activity, gainfully employed, drug free, stable mental health issues, and establishing significant relationships. And if we look at the beginning of the supervision and identify certain risks, and once those are identified to manage those risks then the offender could succeed. Okay, so Elaine was saying before, you're really talking about risk in a different kind of sense. Not risk control but looking at these as risk factors if somebody is unemployed, if they're a drug addict, if they have serious mental health problems, they're risk factors if you can switch them around, now we're looking at offender success. So for instance with employment, again taking off on the model that Elaine talked about, if you've got that two pronged approach of controlling and correctional strategies that we talked about, can you tell us how that works as the line officer looking at that for something like employment? Yeah, because we know employment is key to success, and offenders have to be employed. So we look at it as the controlling and correctional strategies. If they're unemployed, we need to look at it at the beginning, why are they unemployed? Are they unemployed because they don't want to work or they're unemployed because they don't know how to get out there and get a job, they need skills. So with the controlling strategies, you can have them coming in, reporting and telling you, where they're going during the week and who they're applying to. And officers have to go out there and check that. You can't just tell them to go out and get a job because you need to go out there and make sure they go to their homes, make sure they are doing. They are out there and not home asleep. And if it's something for correctional, if they need help, send them to work readiness groups or somewhere temporary agency that you know are hiring and help them and use both the controlling and correctional strategies. Yeah, I think I just read in news and views that if you're unemployed, you're three times more likely to commit a new offense. It just seems obvious. So it really does become that managing risk and trying to get them to be successful. Okay, good. Let me turn to Sheila because in chapter five, they also talk about in the monograph using both controlling and correctional strategies in chapter five in managing non-compliant behavior. Can you pick up from where Jane Ann was talking about that? Yes, Kate. In fact, chapter five points out to us that an integral part of the officer's job is to assess the likelihood that an offender will not comply with the court order conditions and then implement strategies to prevent the non-compliant behavior before it occurs. And just as Jane Ann has mentioned, what we would be using are is the two-pronged approach and that being both the controlling interventions and the correctional interventions. And of course, the controlling interventions are going to be directed at deterring future non-compliance by holding the offender accountable. And we do this through reprimand, through maybe more restrictive or more intrusive types of requirements that's going to actually serve as a consequence to the non-compliant behavior. Now with respect to the correctional interventions, these correctional interventions would be directed at future compliance of the offender and that's going to assist him through possibly education or counseling or treatment such as that. And this is in order to bring about positive change as far as the circumstances that may have led to the non-compliant behavior. Also in chapter five, it tells us it's very clear that any and every instance of non-compliance is to be addressed. And the preference is that the non-compliant behavior be addressed through community-based responses. That chapter also has a listing, a suggested list of framework of interventions to be used by the officer. Can you give us more of a description on the framework? Yes, it is an advisory framework for a response to any non-compliant behavior. And the framework is not an exhaustive list and it categorizes violation behavior into three categories. And as we might see in the graphic, intervention framework as mentioned is categorized into three categories. The first category being low, which would be non-compliant behavior that is minor or non-recurring. The second category being moderate and that non-compliant behavior would be more chronic or severe behavior. And then the last category of course being the more serious would be listed under the high category, which would require revocation. And of course that type of behavior would generally involve substantial risk or possibly repeated non-compliance. And even when you're headed towards revocation, you're going to court as a line officer and you're saying okay, we have exhausted every possible community-based alternative at this point and we have to go do something else. We have to really ask the court to revoke this person. And we're still talking about using both controlling and correctional strategies? Most definitely because we know that there are going to be instances where officers have exhausted all community-based options and will be going before the court and requesting a revocation of the supervision term. What the officer wants to keep in mind is that it's quite likely that although the supervision term will be revoked, the person may come back into the community under an additional term of supervision. And that being the case, we want to have put in place certain appropriate conditions that would actually address the underlying non-compliance and hopefully help this person to succeed. Because remember, our whole intent is the success of the offender over the long term. And they come back. There's so few people who don't come back. And the hope is that maybe if we really work on this and beyond peace, they may not come back. Okay, good idea. All right, I'm going to go back to Elaine here for a minute because one of the things that came up in all the discussions in the committee meetings about this was it's easy to take the controlling and correctional strategies that Jane Ann talked about in general supervision that Sheila talked about in terms of non-compliant behavior. And we can look at the unemployed offender and we can say, okay, this person needs to be employed. We know what to do. We can look at somebody like a substance abuser. We know what to do and we know how to increase those interventions. And we know how to put on the pressure for more negative consequences. But Elaine, as we talked so often, what do you do with that hard core organized crime guy that you know what the controlling strategies should be? Give us an example of where you go with the correctional strategies. I had the good fortune of working with somebody who was really excellent at this. He was tenacious in investigating and holding the federal accountable. But he always never lost an opportunity to provide that correctional intervention. And we had changed it from correctional treatment to correctional intervention to broaden the concept of that. It's not providing treatment. We do a lot of this already. Let me give you an example. He had a fender on supervision who was continuing to associate, be involved in criminal association and he would go out and look at the social clubs and watch them going in and out. And then send him down and say, wait a minute, you know, at our last discussion you told me that the most important thing to you was your children. And yet I saw you at the club and I know that if you continue and you know that if you continue to associate with these guys where you're headed and just point out how his behavior didn't match what his stated values were. And that's correctional intervention. But he always also maintained the controlling strategies in the process. Yeah, it's really not looking, as you said, we really expanded the whole idea of intervention as opposed to just treatment because treatment gets so focused on we're just doing drug treatment or we're just doing mental health treatment. But the interventions again are pointing out the consequences and helping somebody really get a job because there is such a difference in terms of the risk of why they don't have a job and of really looking at what's going to happen when they come back. And really thinking about can we work with this person in the community. Mike one of the other things that the monograph really looks at right now are transitional services. It's what John Hughes said was one of the main things that he asked the committee to look at were the transitional services. Can you give us some insight into that? Sure Kate. This is an area that there's a significant change. Now we're going to talk about doing transition into working with the offenders earlier than their actual release from the institution or from the halfway houses. We're talking about prior to that time getting involved, getting involved with the families, getting involved with the offender, getting involved with the Bureau of Prisons, getting involved with the community centers. We want this early intervention so that things start to happen before the offender actually gets released. Some of the things that we're talking about, we have a graphic that we can kind of refer to here. Everyone would be dealing with the emergencies. Those items, maybe the individual in custody doesn't have housing. Maybe they don't have any money. They don't have a family to go to. They need some help in that. Things that need to be taken care of right away. We might want to implement special conditions. Things, maybe treatment conditions, arranging for the assessment, the first interviews to be done right away. We might want to talk about establishing liaisons with law enforcement and addressing third-party risk issues with the offenders at that time. We want to, of course, ensure that there's compliance with law enforcement registration for people like the sex offenders that have special registration requirements or convicted felon registration. We also want to make sure we update our computerized criminal databases and request appropriate additional conditions, including, perhaps, modifying conditions for offenders for things that we identified during that early time before they're released. Get back to the court. Get those conditions added at that point. Now, this early intervention, of course, brings about another part of it that means we need to work on getting the initial plans finished earlier. So we have another graphic that talks about that a little bit. One of those things is, if we have noticed that they're going to be released from the institution, then during that first 30 days, we're working on it, and then we want the plan finished in 30 days. Now we know that the supervisor should then approve and finish the plan 15 days after that. Of course, we all know that institutions don't always give us that notice. And for those cases, we're going to still give 60 days for the plan to be finished. The supervisor approving it within 15 days. So there are some differences in how we're going to handle that in the future. It's still 60 days, but in one situation, it's 30 days before the release and 30 days after the other, it's 60 days. Okay. And thank you for clarifying that you still have 60 days, be it 30 days before they leave and 30 days after or the complete 60 days when they just land on your doorstep at 4.30 on Friday afternoon and you didn't know they were coming. That still continues to happen a little bit. So I know that there are a number of districts out there who have already started working with people in the halfway houses on a routine basis before they're released and are doing exactly all the things that you were talking about. Okay. The other thing that the monograph talks about now is going from, again, transitional services coming out from the institution onto supervision. The monograph also now talks about transitional services and thinking about somebody actually transitioning off supervision. Again, another new concept, you know, we used to kind of say, well, it's expiration date. Goodbye. Say goodbye to you. You know? We don't want to see you anymore. Bye-bye. But now what we're really going to talk about is how we're going to work with the offenders so that we don't see them again in the future. And really this is something that we start early on when we talk about controlling and correctional. Some of the correctional strategies that we want to implement during the term of supervision are those things, their skills, their techniques, their agencies that the offender starts to learn to use to benefit them as they complete their supervision. During the last six months of supervision, we want to really emphasize with the offenders what it is they need to do. So that they don't return to the criminal justice system. Wouldn't that be nice again, you know, and then maybe Sheila won't be having them with her non-compliant behaviors. And there is now also a framework and guidance for early termination. So. Yes. Early termination is part of the 109 now where it talks about when people should be submitted for early termination, as the issues start to diminish and we reduce the amount of supervision for dealing with particular issues, we need to consider these cases for early termination. Statutorily, there's a timeframe when they're all eligible for it and we want to do that. Now that's not to say that, you know, for some of these cases, we don't want to keep seeing them for core supervision activities, but for those activities where we don't need to be doing a lot of correctional intervention or controlling interventions, then we need to consider those cases for early termination. Okay. One of the issues for people, I think Janie, I can say just in terms of being a line officer, you have those cases that you like to see. Because they're easy. Oh yeah. Definitely. We don't want to terminate them early, but now the monograph will tell you to really look at those cases and start putting them in for early termination. But that doesn't, that whole notion doesn't stop an administrative caseload or necessarily the person that's easy to have under supervision. It just says, Elaine, you're. We discussed the issue of the transitioning off of supervision. What we envisioned was that as the supervision is going on, the offender may have a less intrusive supervision, but the officer is still working in order to help the offender maybe build community support where he had support from the probation office. If, for example, the only reason the person is remaining drug-free is because we're drug testing him two or three times a week and that's a deterrent, then the day he gets off supervision, he's going to go out and get high. So that's not what we want. So we want to be able to begin to wean him from the supervision services, maybe move from our treatment providers to community-based treatment providers, and really focus on that transition out. So that was also part of what went into the discussion. And same with the 30 days beforehand, starting 30 days early, was not just to do what we can, what we traditionally do in a pre-release, which is check out the house, make sure he has a bed and that the people there are willing to let him live there, but also to help the families and the people that he's going to be with to prepare them for his release so that their expectations are not unrealistic, because very often we see that it's all, everybody's thinking about, oh, it's so exciting. They're not thinking about the difficulties that the offender is going to be facing as he tries to transition back in. OK. Any other comments from the group? I just say that on that initial 30 days, we're really what we're trying to do is prepare for the plan. We want to try and get ready so that the plan is almost in place or in place when the offender gets released. So we can start the supervision early. We know that first six months is so critical. And we want to start the supervision early. We need to get started with it. OK. And that's a good segue, Mike, because when we come back, we're going to talk about the case plan process. And Jane Ann can really give us some insight into how this new piece goes according to the 109. OK. That concludes part one of our program. Just a reminder to all of you to fax in your questions, we really would like to hear from you and we'll answer your questions in part two of the program. We'll also spend some time in the new process, as I said, for case planning. What's changed, why it changed, and what the process looks like now. And we'll hear from Nancy Beatty from the Office of Probation and Pre-Trial Services about ongoing technical support from the AO. OK. We'll be back in five minutes. Welcome back, everybody. We do, in fact, have a couple of faxes, and I appreciate that. The first one is coming from Clark Rogers in Western Wisconsin. And thanks, Clark. Clark asks, if we start the initial case plan 30 days before release from the Bureau of Prisons, when do we open the case statistically? And I have a note here from Barbara Meyerhofer, who actually is monitoring some of these, so we get some responses from her, that Ops is planning now to implement a process to open the case when supervision begins. I'm going to follow that with go to Elaine to talk a little bit more about what you know that's going on with that whole process. We knew when we added that element in the monograph that it would create these kinds of operational tensions. But we felt committed that it was really important. It was a good idea to get involved early. So we put it in, and the Office of Probation and Pre-Trial Services really took it and ran with it. And what they've done is one, they're moving to open the cases when supervision begins, which is 30 days prior to the offender's release. And also, Matt Rowland has been working with the Bureau of Prisons to improve the flow of information from the Bureau of Prisons to the districts around the country. OK. Janine, as again, as a line officer, the person who's out there doing the job out on the street, I understand you're already working with people in the halfway houses now. Yes, we are. We're going out, as long as we get noticed from the BOP, that they're out there. We meet with them at the halfway houses. We do the pre-release, meet with the families, really set up the counseling sessions. So they're ready to go when they get out and just work on all the issues that are there, that could be housing or employment. And I think it's a very good way to begin. And I think once they come out or released, you know so much more about that person. They're not just all of a sudden sitting in front of you and that's the first time you've ever seen them. And you really develop a relationship with that person. OK. Thanks. All right. We have another fax. And I'm sorry I really don't know who this one came from. But this says that the specified number of individual contacts, personal, collateral, et cetera, appear to be omitted in the draft Monograph 109 that was released around March of 2002. I'm in the wrong century, sorry. Our district believes that a minimal number of contacts should be included in the plan based on the assessment and officer's opinion and experience as to what it would require to achieve the desired outcome. Would there be AO audit repercussions for our district maintaining a required number of minimal contacts in our plans? We discussed this at the break. And I think almost everybody has something to say on this. But one of the things I will tell you right now is that we're going to show some vignettes that talk about case planning. And some of your questions may be answered there. But I want to go to who wants to start this discussion. That was also an area that we spent a lot of time talking about. What you'll also see in the revised monograph is a discussion about our core responsibilities and the core strategies that are utilized there. It makes it very clear that we have a statutory mandate to remain informed about an offender's conduct and condition. Now that will require more work to remain informed about somebody who has a long criminal history or has a lot of other social factors going on. We intentionally left out the number of contacts so that the supervision process to make it clear that we really are focused on outcomes and the supervision process is going to be more fluid. So for example, if an officer in the old monograph had planned three home contacts for the next six months and at the first contact goes there and walks into a domestic violence situation, he might be there back there next week and it might be 10 contacts on that case. Whereas another case that is progressing well, if a person gets a job and things are going along, three might be too many. So we really did want to leave it to the officer and their supervisor in that planning process and the ongoing planning process that continues through the supervision period to determine those needs. OK, Jane-Ann? In our district, counting contacts have been removed. You do what you need to do. You go out and you make your contacts what needs to be done on that case. In some cases, you may need to go out a lot more than other cases and that's what's going to happen. And it depends on the situation. As Elaine said, if it comes your first contact you make and there's problems, you're going to be there a lot. If you go to another one and they get the job and they do everything they're supposed to be doing, you're not going to see them as much. So contacts number and counting is gone in our district, which is a good thing. OK. So the deal is a person employed rather than how many referrals have you made? Right. It's a bottom line to that. OK. Let me move on here because I want to show a couple of vignettes and I understand through the magic of technology here that that question actually came from Kentucky Western. So we do appreciate your question. And the part of your question that asks whether or not there are going to be repercussions, I don't think there'd be repercussions, but I would say listen to the rest of the broadcast and this will give you some other ideas on how to really look at the desired outcomes and how to get there without the contact deal. But we do know that one of the major changes to the 109 really calls for officers and supervisors to work collaboratively to develop objectives that help offenders meet their goals and then strategies of controlling and correctional strategies that we talked about that the officer can use to help the offenders meet their objectives. In this part of the program, we want to show you two vignettes. The first one illustrates in really a very lighthearted way some obstacles that both supervisors and officers may have experienced with the current system. And the second shows how things can be not only radically different but more productive if you follow the process that's outlined in the new monograph. I can tell you that the planning group had a lot of fun with the first one and we hope you do too. All clear? OK. I'll bring it up now. Did you get rid of him? Yeah, he wasn't there. Thanks for the tip, Frank. I'm so far behind on my case files, I don't think I'll ever catch up. The whole process is so frustrating. Yeah, you're right. Hey, pass me that urine sample over there. OK. Excuse me, I'm looking for the Steven Mack case file. I'm pretty sure you still have it. He's on my PACS list for case reviews this month. Have we met? Lucy, how many home contacts did you do? This is how we communicate with sticky notes. I found this on my computer screen. Hey, his comments to me are usually written all over my case plans. I bet he doesn't even know my name. I can't wait to send him my note. I wonder if my whole response will fit on the back of this. OK, well I need you to be here in an hour so I can update your case file in time. 24 bottles of pee on the desk, 24 bottles of pee, OK. So they do two home contacts per case, got those, plus a month of reports. Time to load these passengers up for the next train to nowhere. I want these. Anywhere but here. Here's my keys. Put them in the car. I'll take them home and work on them tonight. Then we can talk about it tomorrow. I'm Frank. Frank, I knew that. Right. Have you done your home contacts? Yeah, all 24 of them. But there was one I had a question about. Do you want to talk about it now? No time. I'm just too busy. Send me an email. Right, that'll be a lot easier. Hold my calls. Hold my. OK. As I said, we had a little bit of fun with this one. Janeanne is a line officer. What's your reaction to this one yet? I can definitely relate to that. As an officer, I can remember going in and sneaking into the office, the supervisor's office, and putting my files there with the little sticky note. And then getting the files back later, much later time with sticky notes. And it was just a process that goes on and on. Sheila? It's not as unrealistic as possibly perceived. It's very humorous. But at the same time, I see myself in there to a degree with files piled all over the place that we're having to take care of. And I, on occasion, more than once, have taken them home. And that's how you spend your weekend working on your case reviews. And so that is very familiar to me, most definitely. The bringing them in, the people coming in, going out, where are my files? I think it's in the cabinet over here that you had. So yes, I can relate to that. It's mysteriously just dropping on your desk in the middle of the night, Mike. Yeah, you know, files appear to my office. I don't know where they came from. But it does happen, and it really makes you stop and think a little bit about, you know, my god, we never talked to our officers. It's a sad state. But I mean, it's what happens. The notes get passed back and forth, writing on the plans. I mean, just all that was going on. OK, and in fact, for the communication piece, what happened? We've got technology, so you can email each other back and forth. And sticky notes are great. You don't even have to go find the paperclip to get it on the file or any of that kind of stuff. So it works really well. But the whole idea, certainly, of the supervisor not recognizing the officer stretches it out a little bit. We understand that. But again, the problem with you want to talk to your officers, there's just no time. Exactly. You're so busy taking care of the paperwork. And the paperwork is very important. But you spend so much time working on that, that it seems that you don't necessarily have the time that you would like to have in sitting down and collaborating with the officers. And one of the things we knew from the committee was that one of the obstacles to good supervision was officers and supervisors not having an opportunity to really collaborate professionally, as you say. So OK, in our next vignette, we'd like to take a look at how the process can go if you're actually doing it in accordance with the new 109. And it's a little bit different way and feel for doing case plans. So now let's look at this first segment. Yeah, you're exactly right. Let me put this sign up here. OK. Phone offline. All right, well, I've organized these folders in the usual way. Easiest cases on top. Let's get started then. Teri Makala, how's she doing? Really good. What's changed since the last time? Well, I talked to her employer recently, and he's real pleased with her work. She has no violations otherwise. Home situations doing OK. I talked to her husband and family. Ran a records check, no arrests. What about restitution? That's still an issue. She barely makes enough to get by. And most of her money goes to helping support her family. What are the chances of her getting a better job? Well, I talked with Teri about that. And there is a training program where she works. And if she completes it, it looks like there's a good chance she could get a promotion. Well, we really need to encourage that. Any other issues? No, she's meeting all her objectives. Job's going fine. Family stable. She's staying out of trouble. If she can stay on track with those restitution payments, I think we ought to take a look at her next time for early termination. Good idea. Let's work up her case now. Then we'll schedule her for an update in six months. OK. OK. OK, Sheila, what's different about this setup between the officer and the supervisor? It's very, very different. It's apparent that this session was planned. They set aside specific time to deal with the case planning process. When the supervisor came into the officer's office, the sign was put on the door, do not disturb. The phone was taken offline. The files were already there waiting so that the two of them could address all of the issues during this designated time period. It gave the officer an opportunity to sit down with the supervisor and thoroughly discuss each and every case. And the time was not hurried. It was specifically designed to take care of all of these issues that we need to take care of. And they talked to one another. Which we heard in the meetings, Elaine. Well, one of the first things that we did was we brought to actually towards the end of the process. We brought together a large group of officers and with a few supervisors and asked them what they wanted out of the case planning process. And the first thing that they said was that they wanted more contact with their supervisors. We also recognize that our most experienced people are our supervisors and our specialists. And we wanted to capitalize on all of that experience, move it out of the office as much as possible so that the specialists and the supervisors could be good role models for how good supervision occurs in the community. OK. All right, let's go on. Because in the second segment, we start talking about, between the again the line officer and the supervisor, they continue the dialogue. Charlie Jones. How's Charlie doing? Well, I don't know where to go with Charlie. I just scheduled him for coming down to the office more often, take a urine sample each time he comes in. But he keeps making excuses for missing his treatment appointments. Have you talked to his therapist? A couple times, not recently, though. Is there a way that we can use her to help more? Well, I could schedule for her and Charlie to get together and talk about some of these issues. When do we go out in the field again? Thursday. Maybe the two of us can talk to Charlie on that day. Well, then there's the job search. He's having no luck getting hired. He keeps bringing me lists of places where he's applied to every week. Have you thought of sending him to a job program? I did, but it didn't work out too good. Have you talked to Sheila? She uses someone on the west side, and they seem to get really good results. OK, I'll check it out. We really should talk some more about his drug problem. The case plan discussion continues. And because Charlie's case is more complex, this could take more time. But the end result is the same. A mutually agreed upon plan is then entered into the computer's database. More urine samples, new job strategies, and treatment options, and better coordination with his therapist. Yes. Just like the 109 describes. Well, hopefully this will get him back on track. Jane Ann, having just watched this, is this realistic? Yes, we've been doing this for about five years in our district. It is so much better. We would never go back to the old way. You get to sit down with the supervisor. You go through the cases. You come up with a plan together. I think that's the difference. It's something that you talk about. You talk about all the issues. And you come up with a good plan. And like I said, it's something that we've been doing. And we love it. OK. And this looked like not a whole lot of time had passed. They were not there together for days doing this. This is like one file stack. And then it goes to the other side of the desk. Is that really realistic? It is. At the beginning, it's going to take some time just to learn the new process and to be able to get used to the new way. But once it's done, we could sit down and do a case of 12 for a month. And it could take about an hour and a half if there's no major issues. Now, if you get a case that has a lot of issues, it's going to take a longer time. But time-wise, it's amazing. People are going to think it's going to take longer. But it really doesn't once you get used to the program. And we know if you have lots of cases with lots of issues, you're looking at more time. But it really depends on the cases. So OK. Well, I found this segment really interesting. This is the time that you really get to talk to your officer. As a supervisor, when you're reading files and you're trying to figure out what went on and why was my officer doing it, why did you go out and do that? Now you can actually sit and just ask that question and actually find out without trying to guess from the paperwork and the cronos and everything else, why did you go there? You can ask that question. And that's really this great, great opportunity to get a little insight. It's also this opportunity to share a little bit about other ways to do things, other ways to look at things. It's that knowledge that you've gained through years of experience, years of doing things, years of dealing with other officers who have other ways of doing it, and sharing some of the information that maybe your specialists have given to you, and suggesting to your officers to go to your specialist and to deal with them a little bit. This is just valuable information. And I think the other thing is you get this opportunity to coach your officer, to help them out, to do officer development with them. It's just, it's a good feeling. I mean, you feel good about it. I think your officer feels good when they walk out the door and they go, well, I might try some of these other things. I hadn't thought of before, so I hope it works. OK. Picking up on the employment in this particular segment, I think in this process, they're also talking about helping this person get a better job. Not just to pay the restitution, but again, that and beyond piece keeps coming back in here, that if this person really is gainfully employed to the point where they can take care of their family and their other obligations, there's a good thing for you if you can get there. Kate, the other thing that changed in the planning process with the monograph was the timeline of how often case planning sessions would occur. We knew that we had to reduce the paperwork, and we really did try to do that. And most of the case planning occurs, surprise, at the beginning of the supervision period, and then it begins to default after the first six months or so to an annual review. And I just wanted to make a mention about that because that does feel like a very long time between planning sessions when you're dealing with a difficult case. And it is because the other part of the monograph talks about issue-driven staffings. There is an understanding that the officer and the supervisor and perhaps the specialist are working collaboratively with the case. So if issues arise that are going to, in some way, significantly impact the case or change the plan, rather than waiting for the next planning session, the officer will go into the supervisor or if it's a death issue, perhaps meet with the specialist and talk about this is what's happening, this is what I'm thinking about doing, this is what I'm planning to do, and just have that discussion. It'll be captured in a chrono. OK, thanks, Elaine. We're going to go on to our next piece here where the supervisor has a chance to sit back and really talk to the officer about what the officer has been doing based on the review of all the files that day. So now let's see the final segment. A lot of progress here. Now let's talk about you. You've really been working these cases hard, and I appreciate that. And you're doing a much better job blending the correctional and the controlling strategies. It's really making a difference. Thank you. The main thing that I would like for you to work on is your documentation. I do get a better sense of how you're spending your time, but there's so much that you're doing that's not being recorded. You're right. It would help if you were clear on how your strategies help the offenders meet their objectives. All right, I'll work on that. And I'm glad to have a chance to explain what I've been doing. OK. Well, we'll go together in the field Thursday. I look forward to meeting Charlie. Great. Is 8.30 OK for you to meet on Thursday? Yeah, that'll work good. Great. See you later. Mike, this segment looks like you can actually have a conversation again as you were talking about before with your officer and what their performance is. Well, this part is a little bit different. You'll notice in this part the supervisor now starts to talk a little bit to the officer about what the officer is doing more than what the offender is doing. So it starts again. We start as a supervisor, you're looking at the trends of the things that are going on with that officer. What actions they're making suggestions as to what other actions they could be taking to assist in terms of the controlling and correctional strategies that you're looking for in the case in the plan and working with the offender. Quite a bit different here. Again, this is officer development time. This is when you get to work with them. You get to do some more coaching with them to help them out, to get them to be a better officer and improve and hopefully model some of that behavior out with their offenders as well. The other thing that I noticed on this whole piece is that the officer and the supervisor have made an assumption that they're going out in the field together. And what a much better way to have a better sense of what kind of work your officer is doing. Kate, the other point in the way that the new planning process is done, and this was, we heard so loudly from the officers, the first thing that they said was, get my personnel information out of the offender's file so that the planning session really focuses on the offender rather than on what the officer did or didn't do that's not captured in the offender's case file, but it permits for that kind of a discussion to occur. And if the supervisor needs to maintain notes or what have you on those discussions, that it will not be in the offender's case file. Okay. And remember, the supervisor has this responsibility. It is to help work with the officers and help them improve. It's this time that you can give this immediate feedback to the officer. I mean, it's timely, number one, and it's something you can discuss with them. So it really is valuable to the supervisor in terms of their responsibility and to the officer in terms of giving this immediate feedback, something they can discuss if maybe you're, maybe it's something that you haven't quite understood and they can help clarify it for you. So it's a great opportunity. Okay. Janie, and do you have a sense again because you have already been doing this, that your supervisor knows what you're doing better than they did with the previous process? Oh, I think so. Because when you're sitting and talking, you can really, like we have already said that you're really telling them what's been going on in the case that they may not can find out in the file. And I'm sure most people like me, you may not chrono everything that you're actually doing, but when you sit and talk, you really can talk and tell them exactly what's been going on with the case. And supervisors seem, they'll know the cases when it comes to the next review or during the time when you need to staff a situation, they remember the cases. And supervisors going out in the field with officers and then they know where they live and they'll actually see a face with the case. So I think it's a very good thing. Okay. Alrighty. Any other comments here? I was just going to chime in with what Mike had addressed and that being, this is really a very good time for officer development and to coach and teach because our officers are good officers. They're going to be with us. They're going to be in the system and they can do a very good job. And supervisors, we have a responsibility to encourage and coach them along the way. Okay. All right. Thanks everybody. We are going to, we have a stack of facts here that we'd like to get to right now. So we're going to ask the panel to quickly answer some of those. And then we'll move on to a discussion with Nancy Beattie that we had earlier about opportunities from ops to really help everybody. So, okay, from Ruby Lariman. Hi Ruby, the chief in Western Texas. When will, or will we eventually get hard copies of monograph 109? The simple answer to that is as soon as the judicial conference approved the monograph ops went ahead and had them printed but that takes a little time and they will be mailed out. And the answer is you should be getting them by mid-April. But in addition to that, we have another comment to be made by Elaine on the monographs. In the monograph, the, I think it's chapter four, section four of the monograph has in it the supervision strategies and it really incorporated a lot of the memorandum that we had been receiving throughout the years on different issues like search and seizure and sexual sex offenders, et cetera. It's designed, chapter four is designed to be a reference guide for officers. It provides just enough information to hopefully answer the majority of the questions. And under each strategy there is a section of references so that the officer can utilize that to get to more information. The intention is that as new references material become available, that's also added to the 109. So the 109 will be growing, changing as we go along. So the one on the JNEP maybe as time goes on, the most current one available even though it will be available in hard form. Okay. From Jose Figuero, from the district of Puerto Rico, hello to Puerto Rico. Since the supervision process overlaps with that of corrections in the halfway houses of course, who is going to take care of violations such as drug use while at the correctional facility? Kate, while at the correctional facility the offenders are still the responsibility of the Bureau of Prisons. And therefore those issues will be addressed by the Bureau of Prisons. That'll be easy. All right, from Diana Ponziou, again from the Western District of Texas. Hi Diana. What are the major changes to the six month case review process? I think this question came in before we showed the vignette. So you've seen some of the major changes that are going to go on with all of that. And as soon as we turn to some of the information that Nancy Beatty's going to give us you're going to have some additional information for that question. Umberto Marchanda also from Puerto Rico. We're glad you're all watching this today. You sometimes don't have a chance to get this satellite downlink, I know that. For the panel, during the development of the monograph did you examine the impact or effective treatment while in prison such as the 500 hour residential program of BOP and if so how important is it during the assessment process to determine the level of risk? We had a lot of discussions regarding specifically that program because that is such an intensive program that the Bureau of Prison provides. And it's really a two part answer. The first part is that again that Matt Rowland from the Office of Probation and Pre-Trial Services is working to improve the flow of information between the Bureau of Prisons and the field. That's also one of the Bureau of Prisons action items as well. So both agencies are really focused on that. I think that'll be a big help get the information into timely fashion. The other is whether or not we then if we have a special condition requiring drug treatment and somebody has gone through the process how do we deal with that as an issue? Because it's a special condition the monograph requires that we address that special condition. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that we put the person through a completely different treatment process or program. Maybe that we do a thorough and complete assessment of the offender situation. Perhaps the length of treatment might vary and change depending on it. Or we may rely on some of our evaluations in it. It's pretty clearly stated within the monograph. Okay. I think the other thing is again going to those controlling and correctional strategies that both Jane Ann and Sheila talked about is really looking somebody coming out of the institution what do you need to put into place to make sure this person remains drug-free given all the triggers out on the street that weren't there while we're going through this 500 hour program at Biopay. Okay. We have a couple of other facts but some of these questions may be answered in our next segment. Let me back up a little bit to the vignettes that you saw before. We'd ask for training purposes and that's what's in some of these that you use the vignettes in your own district to start a discussion about what happened and to start talking about how to change this case planning process in accordance with the 109. And of course we have a lot of other resources that are going to be available to you. In the materials you downloaded off the JNAT for this particular program there is a list of training programs currently available from the Federal Judicial Center that support the principles of the 109 and I can assure you that we're being developed as we speak right here. We've also developed a training program that focuses on how the supervisor can really implement this whole new case plan process and frankly that's one of the questions from Chris Sutton here about training for supervisors. And that program will be available to circuits on request and information's going out on that, okay? So I talked to Nancy Beatty from the Office of Probation and Pretrial Services earlier. She gave us some additional information on what kinds of technical support will be available through their office. Let's hear what she had to say. First and foremost, the one question everybody has is when are they expected to have all of the principles of the monograph implemented in their districts? Okay, well as you know, the monograph was approved by the Judicial Conference last week so it is now policy. However, we know that implementation of something like this is really a rolling process and it takes planning and it takes time. So the first thing we did was ask each chief to designate a supervision point of contact in the district, usually a deputy or a senior person who will be responsible for the implementation. That person will serve as a liaison to the AO and the FJC in all of the supervision issues. We have asked, or we are going to ask, the supervision point of contact and the chiefs to develop an action plan for implementation of Monograph 109. That plan should be sent by email to Barbara Meyerhofer in the Office of Probation and Pretrial Services by May 30th and that plan should highlight the steps that will be taken and give us an idea of the timeframe for implementation. Okay, because we really know it is gonna depend on how far along some districts are with already having tried some of the different principles and practices and changed some policies. Okay, in addition to the action plan, can you talk about some of the other supporting documents that are gonna be available on the JNET? First, I should say that Monograph 109 itself is on the JNET, on the OPPS webpage. About mid-April, we expect to mail hard copies of the Monograph to all officers and at that same time, we'll give a hard copy of an implementation kit to the chief and the point of contact in each district. But some of those implementation materials will be put on the JNET as early as next week. That implementation kit will contain certain documents. One will be a summary of changes to the Monograph. Another will be a list of references to the research that are in the Monograph. Third, there will be an implementation strategy suggestions piece and then there will be two pieces for supervisors, one providing guidance on the new case planning process and another providing tools for evaluating employee performance. Okay, I've seen all those supporting documents and I know how helpful they're gonna be but I also know people are gonna have questions in addition to all the written materials that are out there. So where do they go when they have questions? Okay, first they should probably try the point of contact in their district. But we have set up a database that will be an email hotline and it is at aodb underscore supervision outreach service. So that AO for administrative office, DB for database, underscore supervision outreach service. That email will be monitored by OPPS staff and we will get back to the question within one business day. We really encourage everybody to use that. That will give us information on questions and concerns but it will also be an opportunity for districts to provide us with creative approaches they've tried. Things that have worked or not worked in their office that we can then share with other districts. Okay, that'll be great. And the other thing that we know is for people who may have difficulty getting to your DCN site and have already gotten to our DCN site, there is a link from our DCN, from the training materials for this broadcast over to yours and vice versa, they can get back to ours. So anybody who has some difficulty getting one place or the other can get to one and then get to the other. Right, on the OPPS site, they're under publications and monographs under monograph 109, but you're right. If you get to one, you can get to the other. Okay, what are the kinds of supports that are gonna be available for MOPPS? Well, we have the regional administrators all in line and trained and ready to deal with questions. So anything that comes up should go right to the regional administrator. If the database email doesn't provide a response that answers the question or if somebody just feels like they need to discuss something, they should be free to call their regional administrators. We will also review those action plans when we get them and see where their technical assistance needs and the regional administrator will be in touch with the chiefs and the supervision point of contact to make sure those needs are met. I will also be looking at them to see what the other training needs are so we can keep working on the different training programs for this. Okay, great. What haven't we touched on yet, Nancy? Well, the only thing that's kind of a new idea around this monograph 109 is that we are committed at the Office of Provision and Pre-trial Services to updating it annually. And we know that right now it represents the best thinking of three years of hard work and current case law and current statutes, but those things change and we will learn from the implementation of this things we may have missed. So we're committed to working on keeping it a relevant document through the years. So people will hear from us asking for feedback. Great, thanks, Nancy. You're welcome. Okay, lots of good information from Nancy and we really appreciate that. We have several more facts that have come in most not surprisingly around the whole case planning process and I'd like to just kind of consolidate them a little bit if I can for the interest of time. From Dave Warlan, Supervising Probation Office in West Texas Midland, from Mike in Western Wisconsin, would be that word, and from the District of Nebraska, everyone was asking how many, if you're really gonna follow the 109, things like how many officers can one supervisor supervise if you're gonna really follow all of this. I can tell you, or Jane Ann can tell you, and I'll turn to Jane Ann now. Your supervisor has six or seven officers now? Yes. That they're supervising and this particular process seems to work pretty well for them. And again, it's, the other question went to whether or not this supervisor review process seemed a little more cursory than what you've had before and who's gonna audit the file. And I'm gonna turn this to Mike if I can very quickly in terms of your response to that. Well, I think the initial time the supervisor gets to review the plan at the period of 60 days. That is a review done not necessarily as a staffing with the officer, but it is done so the supervisor has time to sit down with the file, go through the file, examine it completely. This is probably one of the more important times for the supervisor to understand what's going on with that case. So it's an extensive review at that point. Later on during the, at the six month and annual reviews thereafter, it's more of a contact, more of a interview with the, or collaboration with the officer, discussing what's going on and talking about it at that point. And hopefully some of the information that you can remember about the file from early on. Okay. Looking at the file with the officer too at that point. You're not ignoring the file while this is going on. They really are going through it. So, and this is, again, as we talked about, separating the officer performance from the offenders progress. And that's a big huge difference in all of this, which also gets to our last question here. Since supervisors and officers will be doing case planning together, will there be a need for probation 55A? Or will this form be modified? And here's the easy answer to that. The form's gone. So, it will. Now, what I will say, having said all of that, because that was too quick an answer for that, is that, as Nancy Beatty said, there's an awful lot more information that's going up on the JNET that's being prepared by ops, again, as we speak. And additional information will be developed as we know what needs to be developed. And there will be training available through the circuit-wide supervisors for supervisors to really help you figure out how to do this process and how to do what Mike and Sheila were talking about before, in terms of really trying to coach your officers during this whole process. And again, focusing on desired outcomes, what's really happening with these particular cases, okay? Before we completely wrap up today's program, I'd like to go around to the panel and ask everybody for kind of your final comments to your colleagues out there. So, from Sheila as the supervisor, what would you tell them? I think one of the things, Kate, that I would say is to work with the other supervisors. This is something that we work together on. This is not an individual thing that we do. It will only be better for everyone. Also, ensure that the people that are in your unit, the officers in your unit, really understand what's expected of them. That's only reasonable, and as a result, we'll all do a better job. Okay, thanks, Sheila. Jane Ann? I didn't say it works. It really works. Give it a chance. The plan becomes a much better plan overall. It focuses on what you need to do. Timeliness, you get them done. It's not dragging on. Your files are always in your office, so you know where they are. When you need them, you don't have to go chase them down. So, I just say it really does work. Okay, thanks, Jane Ann. Mike? And my advice to supervisors is be open. It's new, it's different. Listen to what your officers have to say to you. They might have a really good idea. There are a lot of great ideas out there. We need to really try and expand our horizons, and this is a way to do it. Okay, Annalaine? To the Chiefs? Take the shrink wrap-off, the 109 that we got. That's gonna be another training program that we're gonna develop. Okay. No, really, get to know the new 109. Recognize that it will take time to fully implement the new 109. Focus on the principles. If you focus on the principles, the details will follow. And the third thing is to take, the fourth thing, counting, take advantage of every opportunity to demonstrate commitment to supervision. Okay, thank you, Elaine. All right, that wraps it up for today's program. I would truly like to thank the members of our panel, Elaine Torensi, Sheila Johnson, Mike Thompson, and Jane Ann Mort. Your contributions were so helpful today, and I personally really enjoyed this. This was fun. Okay, to those of you watching, we hope this is the beginning of a new direction. One that embraces change leads us all to a more productive future. And I thank you all for joining us.