Durham County officials have released the following memo from the County Manager's office in preparation for a Friday Crime Cabinet meeting.

The memo from assistant county manager Laura Jensen states "...Durham County's average caseload per officer falls within the recommended state guidelines."

The memo in its entirety is as follows:

County Manager's Office Memo

To: Mike Ruffin, County Manager
From: Laura Jensen, Assistant to the County Manager
Date: 12/29/08
Re: Probation Officer Allocation Analysis

As you requested, I reviewed the guidelines for probation officer allocation by the State of North Carolina and compared Durham County's average caseload to the eighteen counties who received new probation officer positions. Using the state guidelines for the recommended number of cases per probation officer, I determined that Durham County's average caseload per officer falls within the recommended state guidelines.

In 2004, the National Institute of Crime recommended the following ratios for the maximum number cases per probation officer. Durham County's average caseloads per officer as of December 6, 2008 are in the far right column.

Work Assignment                              Ratio of Cases to Officer                   Durham County Ratios
Community Officer                            110:1                                              85:1
Intermediate Officer                          60:1                                               48:1
Special Operations Officer                  40:1                                               33:1

The attached spreadsheet lists the eighteen counties that were approved for new probation officer positions along with the average number of cases per officer in each county. A total of twenty-nine new positions were approved, nine of which will go to Wake County.

John Lee, the Judicial District Manager for the Division of Community Corrections in Durham informed me that Durham County reduced the number of vacant probation officer positions to five from seventeen this past spring. He also informed me that the State of North Carolina appropriated funding for a new study on probation officer caseloads, which could affect allocations in the future. Tim Moose at the Department of Corrections, Division of Community Corrections reported in an e-mail dated December 30, 2008 that the proposals for the study are due by February 2, 2009, with the study expected to take six to nine months. Mr. Moose stated, "The study will look at several areas, including the offender population & risk, geographical differences, national practices, current officer workload, case management and caseload standards to name a few. The end result is recommendations concerning officer workload and appropriate caseload standards."

 Source: Email sent to Durham Crime Cabinet Members