I. Information Tools

The information revolution has come to community supervision. Despite tight budgets, supervision agencies around the country increasingly are taking advantage of new technologies that allow staff to monitor and document offenders' whereabouts and activities virtually around the clock. Moreover, new databases and information management systems help process all of the information, identifying offenders headed for trouble and spotting trends that allow supervisors to better manage staff and other resources. Computer laptop notebooks hooked into networks are replacing staff's little black books, where lots of information went in but little came out to be shared with others. Once essentially out on their own, staff today is becoming the center of a real-time information association that brings judges, treatment providers and other resources to bear in a significant way toward the mission of recidivism reduction.

While the new information tools are tremendously powerful, they can only supplement - not supplant - traditional, old fashioned shoe leather. Staff must not be desk-bound, reviewing official records and waiting for the arrival of alerts from electronic monitors or drug tests. Behavior management is a proactive approach that requires aggressive development of relationships with offenders and those in a position to know about and influence their actions. Trusting communication with a wide variety of official and community contacts not only enhances staffs' understanding of what offenders are doing, but provides clues to how and why--essential knowledge for successful intervention and behavior change. In this sense, "community supervision" gains its dual meaning: supervision of offenders by the community as well as supervision of offenders in the community.