Florida Department of Corrections
Michael D. Crews, Secretary

Bureau of Probation & Parole Field Services is responsible for developing, implementing, revising and monitoring programs in the areas of probation and other field supervision operations, sentencing scoresheets, probation and parole databases, court-ordered payments, and sexual offenders/predators. Employees in this bureau are also responsible for developing policy for over 3,800 staff members, including over 2,800 probation officers and supervisors.

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Along with supervising more than 152,000 offenders requiring community supervision, correctional probation officers (CPOs) are required to collect the following fees from offenders, when applicable: cost of supervision, victim restitution, court fines and costs. CPO's are also required to conduct more than 284,000 investigations each year, including pre and post sentence investigations, other state investigations and to work closely with other law enforcement agencies in the community to ensure the safety of the community.

One example of this is the Fugitive Apprehension Coordination Team (FACT), which was implemented this year. Since its inception, this unit has assisted in reducing the number of outstanding warrants for probation/ parole violators by more than 5%. This unit has accomplished this by working closely with field staff, local, state and federal law enforcement authorities and the public through an Absconder/Fugitive Search Web Site where the public can call or e-mail tips about absconders' whereabouts. This page is located at http://www.dc.state.fl.us/wanted.html and contains information regarding absconders, including photos, when available.

• In FY 2000-01, the Office of Community Corrections also provided specialized training opportunities for all staff in areas such as Search and Seizure techniques and Safety and Survival training.
  
  
• In FY 2000-01, the highest average caseload for correctional probation officers was for those supervising offenders on basic community supervision (77:1), such as felony probation, and the lowest average caseload for CPO's was for those supervising offenders on community control (house arrest intensive supervision (26:1)).
  
  
• The number of investigations dropped 20.6% over the previous year, due to the elimination of several types of investigations as part of an ongoing effort to reduce administrative workloads on certified officers so they can focus on field supervision.
  
  

Number of Investigations Conducted (1996-97 to FY 2000-01)

Payments Collected During FY 2000-01 Total $83,551,804*

* Community Corrections also collects other costs (crimes compensation, electronic monitoring, drug testing fees, surcharge and others).