Newly released audits show the Utah agency that oversees people on parole and probation does not have enough experienced staff to keep up with increasing demand for high-risk offender supervision and doesn’t have the tools to effectively keep tabs on such offenders.
The reports from the Legislative Auditor General’s office say these issues could compromise public safety. One report identifies 15 cases in 2020-2021 where someone under state supervision committed a high-profile crime — including six homicides.
In some cases, auditors also found that judges and jails may be inadvertently thwarting Adult Probation and Parole agents’ efforts to keep potentially violent offenders behind bars.
The three audits were released Tuesday at a legislative audit subcommittee meeting; together, they focus on Adult Probation and Parole, the Board of Pardons and Parole and the coordination between these two agencies and other criminal justice entities.
Lawmakers asked legislative auditors to look into the performance of both parole agencies after multiple people under Adult Probation and Parole supervision reoffended. Legislators wanted to know if the agencies were effective “in enhancing public safety.”
Ultimately, auditors identified a number of issues and recommended that Adult Probation and Parole address staff retention, training and management, as well as revamp its outdated and unworkable offender management system, known as O-Track.
They also recommended that the Board of Pardons and Parole better define its philosophy and track metrics to determine whether or not their decisions are consistent and effective at reducing recidivism. And they recommended that criminal justice agencies create a common definition of “recidivism” so they can better achieve their goals.
Officials with the Utah Department of Corrections, which houses the Division of Adult Probation and Parole, said in a statement Tuesday that they agree with and will implement the recommendations.
“We appreciate that legislative auditors took the time to understand the complexities of being an Adult Probation and Parole agent,” corrections executive director Brian Nielson said. “We view this analysis as an opportunity to better equip agents with the tools needed to effectively improve public safety and promote positive change in the individuals with whom we work.”
Staffing shortages and effective supervision
The number of people on parole in Utah increased after the Justice Reinvestment Initiative went into effect in 2015, according to one of the performance audits. The sweeping criminal justice reform initiative was meant to decrease the state’s prison population and reduce recidivism.
Since then, though, reports of parolees reoffending spiked in 2016 and stayed above average until 2020, one audit states.
At the same time, however, the audit notes that the number of people who received probation for crimes has decreased. The number of probationers who have committed new crimes has also stayed relatively steady over the past ten years.
Auditors did not say that the initiative directly contributed to more parolees reoffending, noting “judges, prosecutors, administrative leaders, and policy makers” can impact the data, as well as “shifts in criminal behavior, public opinion, and impacts from COVID-19.”
But auditors said probation and parole agents are seeing an increase in the number of people considered “intensive- and high-risk.”
In 2021, 22% of cases involved an intensive-risk offender and 44% involved someone considered high-risk.
In 2015 — when the sweeping justice reform initiative went into effect — those percentages were 11 and 37, respectively.
Meanwhile, auditors said Adult Probation and Parole is having trouble retaining employees.
Region 3, which includes Tooele, Salt Lake and Summit counties, was particularly problematic. It has the most staff and most offenders in the state — and the highest levels of agent turnover. That leads to high case loads, auditors said.
High caseloads and inexperience, the audit indicated, can lead to agents missing concerning updates in an offender’s case.
Auditors also found that high caseloads for Adult Probation and Parole agents may be a product of a court system and pardon board that does not understand an agent’s caseload capacity.
The report indicates that Adult Probation and Parole has not determined its operational capacity, but should — for the benefit of public safety.
“Presently, the Courts and the Board can release offenders to be supervised by AP&P without recognition that AP&P has limited capacity for supervision,” the report said. “We acknowledge that prisons and jails, like AP&P, have limited resources. However, to better manage public safety, all Utah justice entities should be aware of each other’s capacity limits and more closely work together to minimize public risk.”
O-Track remains a problem
There are other reasons why an agent could miss a red flag, including the computer system they use.
As one agent put it, the O-Track system is “like molasses in winter” and is often down, one audit states. This clunky system is the same one that proved ineffective at helping law enforcement determine University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey’s soon-to-be-killer was on parole.
Last upgraded in 2009, the system does not immediately update when the court database does, meaning it may not reflect crucial updates in an offender’s case when an agent checks it.
The way it stores information also makes it difficult to evaluate an offender and determine a treatment plan — and “nearly impossible” to determine if a treatment is effective. The report recommended that officials create a “strategic business plan” to develop a new, workable information system.
Auditors also identified issues with the Board of Pardons and Parole’s use of O-Track. While the board created an electronic file management system in 2016 — at auditors’ recommendation — and staff can now do most of their work on a computer, they can’t vote on a parole or pardon decision, or give reasons for their choice, electronically.
The auditor’s report also noted that they should be more transparent about their sentencing decisions.
“Inmate advocacy groups and inmates have expressed continued concern that the state’s parole decisions are not consistent, noting that similar crimes receive widely different sentence lengths,” according to the audit.
While Utah’s indeterminate sentencing structure does allow for discrepancies in time served (or not served) for people who have committed similar offenses, auditors said the board should create a less vague framework for these decisions and release that information to the public.
Another audit needed?
Auditors understood that Adult Probation and Parole, along with the Board of Pardons and Parole, don’t work in a vacuum. They reviewed some of that coordination in their third report.
Among several issues, they found instances of probation and parole agents arresting an offender they deemed a public safety risk only for the person to be quickly let out of jail. Utah law gives probation and parole agents the ability to detain offenders for up to 72 hours, but jails are not required to hold someone for that long.
The report said that operations undertaken between November 2021 and January 2022 netted 55 arrests, but nine defendants were released almost immediately because of overcrowding.
“The inability to detain some fugitives in jail long enough to obtain a warrant from a judge, or to be seen by a judge on an outstanding warrant, wastes resources and creates public safety concerns,” according to the audit.
Auditors also talked with several agents who were concerned that some judges were sentencing violent or repeat offenders directly to probation, including those previously convicted of crimes that resulted in a fatality.
Those and others cases prompted enough concern that auditors wanted to look into the court system next.
“We would like to review these cases at greater depth in an audit to determine if the appropriate policies were followed and whether public safety is being put at risk,” they wrote.
On Tuesday evening, Legislative Audit Subcommittee members voted to move all the audits to other committees for review.
Sen. Stuart Adams, the Republican state Senate president who sits on the committee, said he was concerned about the audits’ findings and called for action to address the problems, including creating a unified definition of recidivism and policies to make sure people don’t reoffend.
“The whole intent behind that was to reduce recidivism, [that] treatment was better than incarceration. But as I look at the numbers,” Adams said. “I’m concerned we’re headed in the wrong direction and I don’t know why.”
