NCJ Number
193310
Journal
Topics in Community Corrections Dated: 2001 Pages: 28-33
Date Published
2001
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article describes the Connecticut Board of Parole's participation in Project One Voice, which has brought together various parts of the criminal justice system to share information and participate in joint operations.
Abstract
This participation by the parole board led to the belief that policing and parole supervision could benefit from collaboration. The police could gain by learning the identities of parolees in their jurisdictions, and the parole agencies could benefit by having police quickly remove problem parolees from the community. The collaboration has been facilitated by an existing community-based structure for policing. Police officers who work in a community-policing environment are generally more open to new concepts, are oriented toward the general well-being of the community, know the community leaders, and are aware of the particular concerns of the community. Parole agencies and police agencies have established lines of communication at four levels: administration, middle management, operations, and parolee. Core elements of the program are frequent contact among officers from the agencies; police accompaniment on parole home visits; parole ride-alongs on police patrols of areas with drug dealing and gang activity; parole involvement in community meetings; parole officer attendance at certain police staff meetings; parole participation in special police operations; and cooperation in the operations of the Fugitive Team and the Special Management Unit, which is responsible for supervising sex offenders on parole. Local program variations are noted in this article.