My principal job responsibility as a Parole Officer is to monitor the reintegration of criminal offenders serving the remainder of sentences while conditionally released into the community on parole. Parole officers spend most of their time preparing detailed offender case summaries. A case summary is a document that details an offender's criminal, social, psychological, and institutional adjustment history; it is completed after an in-depth interview between a parole officer and an offender, who is also referred to as the client.
As a Supervisor within my division, I am responsible in ensuring that all parole officers under my unit accomplish the tasks assigned and that they comply with the parole officer's manual guideline. This guideline comprises of duties that every parole officer must follow, which include verification of offender-related information; .
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processing status letters that inform offenders whether or not they were approved for parole; answering offenders" written and verbal questions; plan rehabilitation programs with offenders; establishing rules of conduct, goals and objectives; referring offenders to community and social service programs, as may be required; contacting offenders for acceptable residential plans; conducting parole orientations for new offenders; responding to inquiries from the public; and providing field parole officers with offender information.
The job comes with its own brand of stress, that's for sure. As a parole officer and a supervisor, I work with people who have spent years in prison, and try to help them get back into society's mainstream, which can be very emotionally draining and extremely dangerous at all times. You might be dealing with some very angry, aggressive individuals and their families, and you need to be adept at handling all sorts of situations and personalities. Each parole officer within my division may handle anywhere from 20 to more than 300 clients at a time.
