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Technology

Technological advances enhance and improve community corrections functions in a rapidly changing global environment. From virtual office settings, innovations in communication and supervision, training and learning opportunities, and program delivery, the community corrections profession continues to explore ways to enhance community safety, improve supervision by achieving position change, and support staff via technology.

Mobile Probation Unit

Florida’s newest supervision resource is the addition of the Mobile Probation Units (MPU). The evolution of the MPU’s began when the Palm Beach County Jail was struggling with overcrowding issues. A review was conducted of those who were housed in their facility, and it was determined a great number of those were being held on a Violation of Probation (VOP). Furthermore, many violations were due to the individual under supervision failing to report to the Probation Office as instructed. To assist in alleviating overcrowding, and boost compliance, the MPU was implemented.

The first MPU is a 24-foot vehicle, equipped with a staging area and tents, folding tables, folding chairs, and locations within the bus designed to provide probation officers an area to meet with those under supervision. Designated reporting sites have been established where the MPU can be centrally located, and have public facilities, ample parking, and officer protection.

The MPU has been a great success in providing a valuable resource to those who are on supervision. Bringing services to the community affords the opportunity for success to those we supervise. Florida has recently added a new MPU.

A mobile probation unit, looks like a short bus that seats 20 people from the outside

Bicycle Units

Hillsborough County, Florida has multiple urban areas, such as the City of Tampa that has housing in condensed areas, such as apartments, condominiums, high rise buildings and subdivision neighborhoods. These communities often have multiple offenders living in the area, and State Probation Officers are overlapping in these communities supervising their offenders on community supervision/ probation.

As a result, Community Corrections started a Probation Unit where bicycles are used when conducting the supervision of offenders in urban areas. This is done in partnership with our law enforcement partner bicycle units.

This concept has shown good rewards as it allows for an efficient way of making field contacts with offenders while improving community relations in and near offender residences and employment in urban areas utilizing bicycles in a team environment.

Each officer completes a required 32-hour national training before being accepted into the program. In the near future, other urban areas of Florida will implement the Bike Program.

two bicycles with soft lunch box-sized containers strapped over the back tires

Virtual Offices

Today's workplace may be an onsite or offsite location that employs an array of integrative technologies, allowing for hybrid use or a totally virtual model with all users technologically connected across limitless geographical settings.

a woman working on a laptop beside a window inside a sky scraper

  • How the New Virtual Office Could Improve Remote Work

    Date: September 20, 2022 
    This 2022 article provides numerous discussions and resources regarding virtual offices and employees’ return to work attitudes.

  • No Limits: Advances in Community Supervision Technology

    Georgia Department of Community Supervision 
    Date: January 2017

  • Bringing Supervision to the Community: Virtual Offices for Parole Officers

    State of Georgia Pardons and Paroles, presented at APPA 
    Date: 2015

  • Remote Best Practices for Community Supervision

    Date: July 2020 
    This report is intended to provide practical recommendations and guidance for transition to remote and distance supervision practices while observing community supervision best practices. It was created by research staff and is based on interviews with leaders throughout the industry and provides recommendations comprised from the American Probation and Parole Association, Justice Management Institute, National Association of Drug Court Professionals, the Vera Institute, Council of State Governments, National Center for State Courts, and United States Courts Services. Additionally, it provides guidance on how community supervision has and will continue the transition to remote supervision in response to COVID-19 with elements of successful supervision programs and remote culture of supervision programs.

Mobile Devices

Portable devices such as smartphones, e-readers, tablets, smartwatches, wired or wireless, with communication and data exchange capabilities.

a chart showing a chart beside a cell phone. the data of the chart is unreadable

  • Procuring and Implementing Offender Tracking Technology Challenges

    Date: April 2018 
    This publication by the National Institute of Justice through the Justice Technology Information Center provides key findings for agencies challenged with decision-making and procurement of offender tracking technology.

  • Probation Office Pilots Lean, Open Design to Shrink Space, Rent Bills

    Date: August 27, 2014 
    This article from the US Courts showcases the spatial design of Chicago probation offices and their piloted Integrated Workplace Initiative (IWI). Goals include cutting rent costs through space-sharing and workspace mobility.

  • Leveraging the Power of Smartphone Applications to Enhance Community Supervision

    Date: April 7, 2020 
    This issue paper, submitted by the technology committee of the American Probation and Parole Association on April 7, 2020, addresses the use of smartphone applications installed on a person under supervision's personal device or a device provided to the client to be used in support of the community supervision process. The paper outlines the various capabilities and expands use of the technology now available for supervision purposes, including but not limited to monitoring of location, contacts, programming, and case management.

GPS Monitoring

Global Position Systems (GPS) are software tracking systems that monitor persons under supervision’s location and movement in the community.

GPS monitoring has been the focus of several legal cases within the past ten years, including US v. Lambus (2017) and US v. Jones (2012). US v. Lambus found that wearing an ankle bracelet requires a warrant, while US v. Jones held that installing a GPS device on a vehicle to track it constitutes as a search under the Fourth Amendment. Because of the complicated legal history of GPS monitoring, agencies should have clear policies and procedures in place that dictate how and when a GPS monitor will be used.

A quote that reads: One study revealed that drug-involved probationers who volunteered to receive text or email reminders about treatment foals participated in more days of treatment and had fewer days of subatance use than their counterparts who chose not to receive electronic reminders.

Electronic Monitoring

Electronic monitoring (EM) devices use active or passive GPS tracking. Passive tracking requires the person under supervision to communicate via phone or connection through a home monitoring device (HMD), such as an ankle monitor, linked to a centralized computer system. Active tracking continuously notifies the centralized system if the person under supervision moves outside the designated radius.

Teleconferencing

The use of teleconferencing and video teleconferencing has grown in popularity to maintain communication between individuals and groups with broad application in community corrections. This includes engagement with persons under supervision and in treatment interventions.

Social Media

Internet-based networking platforms where participants share content, including personal information. Community supervision staff often gather information from these sites as an adjunct to more traditional methods of monitoring persons under supervision’s activities. Social media platforms commonly include Facebook (Meta), Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn.

a collection of social media logos

  • Leveraging Social Media for Reentry Programs

    Date: March 25, 2021 
    This presentation from the National Reentry Resource Center provides information on the use of social media in your supervision agency’s reentry program.

  • The Use of Social Media as a Supervision Tool

    Date: April 24, 2019 
    This issue paper from the Technology Committee of the American Probation and Parole Association outlines the use of social media monitoring in supervision strategies. By accessing social networking sites, officers may find important information that otherwise might not be readily available to them. With these opportunities come challenges that agencies will need to consider and address to ensure officers understand how to use social media monitoring in an ethical manner, consistent with an agency’s mission and values.

  • Issue Paper on The Use of Social Media in Community Corrections (APPA)

    Date: 2014 
    This paper was developed to elevate the awareness of the potential of social media, also known as social networking, in the field of community corrections. Monitoring client activity on social media can be an important component of the investigation or supervision process, however with opportunities come challenges. This paper will highlight the importance of establishing policies around social media use and identify some of the issues community corrections agencies may encounter as they incorporate social media in their investigation and supervision practices. Specifically, the paper addresses four areas of interest with social media usage in community corrections: client investigations and intelligence gathering; policy development available tools to assist agencies monitor social media; and training resources.

Scanning Software

Software used to scan mobile devices or computers of persons under supervision to confront compliance.

  • Field Search: A Tool for Monitoring Sex Offenders

    Date: April 2010 
    A powerful tool called Field Search enables law enforcement and community corrections officers to monitor sex offenders' ready access to the Internet and manage their computer use

Case Management Software

Software which functions to improve communication between staff and across divisions of an agency and provides reports, data, and oversight to advance supervision.

Polygraph and CVS (Voice Stress)

Technology used to detect deception, most often with persons under supervision convicted of sexual offenses; polygraph, being more commonly used, and less frequently, Computer Voice Stress (CVS) systems.

  • The Use of Polygraph in Sex Offender Treatment

    Date: 2012 and 2014 evaluation periods 
    This resource site from the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice outlines the use of polygraphs in the state by providing an overview of agency responsibility, use of the polygraph, and the cost associated with this technology.

  • Polygraph for Sex Offender Management

    Date: November 2016 
    This overview outlines the use of polygraphs for sex offenders supervised in the Federal system on Probation and Supervised Release for Federal Courts.

  • Frequently Asked Questions on the Use of Polygraphs

    Date: Copyright 2010 
    This website for the American Polygraph Association discusses and answers the most frequently asked questions about the use of polygraphs.

  • The Effectiveness and Future of Polygraph Testing

    Date: September 3, 2020 
    This 2020 paper from EBP Society, a community of professionals who share a commitment to evidence-based education and staff development, presents and evaluates different studies that analyzed the benefits and shortcomings of the current use of polygraphs in the United States.

  • Voice Stress Analysis: Only 15 Percent of Lies About Drug Use Detected in Field Test

    Date: 2008 
    VSA software programs are designed to measure changes in voice patterns caused by the stress, or the physical effort, of trying to hide deceptive responses.[4] VSA programs interpret changes in vocal patterns and indicate on a graph whether the subject is being "deceptive" or "truthful."

Kiosks

Automated reporting and supervision through physical kiosks used for persons under supervision who are assessed at lower risk and as a supplement to traditional supervision practices for other persons. Using kiosks for supervision can create reporting efficiencies and documentation that benefit both staff and persons under supervision.

  • document cover image

    Kiosk Supervision: A Guidebook for Community Corrections Professionals

    Bauer, Erin L., Carol A. Hagen, Angela D. Greene, Scott Crosse, Michele A. Harmon, and Ronald E. Claus. Rockville, MD: Westat
    Date: 2015
    "Automated kiosk reporting systems have gained popularity in recent years as community supervision agencies strive to provide quality supervision services at reduced costs. This guidebook, which provides community supervision agencies with an overview of automated kiosk reporting systems, is based primarily on the findings of a multi-jurisdiction kiosk study on the use of automated kiosk reporting systems to supervise clients placed under community supervision. The multi-jurisdiction kiosk study was conducted by Westat, an employee-owned research firm in Rockville, Maryland, and funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (NIJ). This research was designed to gather as much information as possible on automated kiosk reporting systems from the field—i.e., community supervision agencies that were currently using, seriously considered using, or formerly used automated kiosk reporting systems to supervise clients—and to compile and disseminate the information collected to community supervision agencies that may be exploring alternatives to traditional officer supervision."

  • document cover image for the D C Document

    Kiosk Supervision for the District of Columbia

    Jannetta, Jesse, and Robin Halberstadt. Urban Institute: Justice Policy Center and Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (CSOSA) Date: January 2011
    "One supervision method that states and localities across the nation have adopted to supervise low-risk offenders and pretrial defendants efficiently is kiosk supervision. Kiosk systems can replace in-person reporting requirements, are convenient for both supervisees and supervision agencies, and help shift resources to moderate- and high-risk probationers and parolees who need more intensive interventions and monitoring. With supervision budgets under increasing stress and caseloads rising, these aspects of kiosk supervision systems are highly attractive."

Supervision Using Supervisee Smartphones

Software incorporated on the persons under supervision’s personal phone or with a device provided to the person by the agency. Smartphones expand the staff's capacity to supervise persons under supervision using virtual check-ins as an adjunct to in-person meetings. It is another tool to monitor compliance with conditions of release, address challenges with more immediacy, provide information on persons under supervision’s location, and as an opportunity to support behavior change.

a cell phone beside a column chart. the chart data is unreadable

  • Using Remote Technology to Enhance Criminal Justice Outcomes: Webinar

    APPA 
     

  • Monitoring with Smartphones: A Survey of Applications

    Date: June 2017 
    The power of this multifaceted technology combined with its prevalence within our society has made smartphone applications a very attractive supervision tool, one without the stigma associated with more traditional electronic monitoring devices.

  • Leveraging the Power of Smartphone Applications to Enhance Community Supervision

    Date: April 7, 2020 
    This issue paper, submitted by the technology committee of the American Probation and Parole Association on April 7, 2020, addresses the use of smartphone applications installed on a person under supervision's personal device or a device provided to the client to be used in support of the community supervision process. The paper outlines the various capabilities and expands use of the technology now available for supervision purposes, including but not limited to monitoring of location, contacts, programming, and case management.

  • Using Mobile Technology to Enhance Outcomes in Community Corrections

    Date: May 1, 2020 
    This webinar, a joint presentation from the American Probation and Parole Association and the National Association of Drug Court Professionals by Doug Marlow, J.D, Ph.D., discusses using remote technology to apply evidence-based practices in probation and parole supervision, including treatment courts and practices.

  • Arkansas Division of Community Correction Texting Protocol

    Date: November 12, 2022 
    This 2020 study from global business messaging provider MessageMedia and Marquis Software, a leading platform for Offender Management Systems, outlines the outcomes of text messaging appointment reminders for community supervision.

  • Community Supervision in a Digital World

    Date: 2021 
    This study provided by the Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative funded by the National Institute of Justice through the Rand Corporation outlines challenges and opportunities related to supervising individuals in an increasingly digital world and what needs to occur for agencies to overcome these obstacles.

  • Community Corrections Technology: Experts Identify Top Needs for Tech Solutions to Mounting Probation and Parole System Challenges

    Date: March 1, 2021 
    This 2021 article from the Office of Justice Programs outlines the need for agencies to use technology in assisting with the supervision of the ever-growing community corrections population with approaches to managing and supporting that population.

Artificial Intelligence

Using primarily computers, AI simulates human intelligence. AI’s emerging research and practice is finding its way into consideration for application within the corrections profession. However, while interest in AI is growing, it is tempered by the challenges in implementation and the ethical use of AI with persons under correctional supervision.