N.Y. parole officers say paperwork trumping policing

Bronx parolee held in killing; Ex-con hunted in love-slay; Murder suspect had broken parole. It’s headlines like these that send shivers down the spines of parole officers. “We go bananas when we read [crime stories in] the newspaper—and hope it’s not our case,” says parole officer Manuelita Clemente, council leader of the New York State Public Employees Federation’s (PEF) 1,100-member unit at the state’s Division of Parole.

One headline they’d like to read, though, is “Executive director of parole fired.”

For months, parole officers have been calling on management and high-level government officials to examine working conditions at the division of parole. They say high caseloads, repetitious paperwork and burdensome work rules interfere with their ability to adequately monitor parolees—and protect communities.

Because their calls for scrutiny have gone unanswered, PEF’s parole officers are making their case public—holding press conferences and talking with the media— demanding the resignation of division of parole executive director Anthony Ellis.

Specifically, workers say re-arrest quotas combined with redundant paperwork and Ellis’s order that parole officers spend more time in the office jeopardize public safety.

“When I started this job 12 years ago, I’d spend four days in the field and one day in the office,” says Clemente. Now, officers are spending about three hours in the office every day. Moreover, she says, officers used to have the flexibility to do surprise visits, including weekend checks. “Now everyone is working an 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. shift, Monday through Friday. The criminals are aware that we are not on the streets.”

Caseloads are an issue, too. “If a parolee is a small-time drug dealer, he’s considered to be only a quarter of a body,” Clemente explains. “If he is a Level III sex offender, he’s considered a whole body.” Officers easily are responsible for supervising upward of 60 parolees, according to PEF.

The union further charges Ellis, a political appointee who formerly was the director of law enforcement for the state’s office of parks, recreation and historic preservation, with retaliation against workers who are publicly speaking out against the division’s policies and asking for Ellis’s resignation. “As soon as we did a rally and requested that he be ousted, I was confined to a desk job for two weeks,” says Clemente.