Corrections Community

To those who are interested. Missouri is now hiring again. It was described to me as the ability to hire as long as the agency was able to show a need. I have now received letters from three counties and I am holding out hope to be hired before too long. Thought I would throw this out there. ~Q

I have yet to speak with an active duty, Officer who isn't still wet behib the ears or who isn't in management who approves of the E Driven stuff, SAR or Violation Process. "Supervision" in this state is non existent.

So, you think evidence based practices are another fad headed for the dustbin of corrections history? Could it be that these tools are a desperate attempt to prevent the prison system from bursting at the seams by excusing violations in a state with two of the most dangerous cities in America? http://www.infoplease.com/us/statistics/safest-dangerous-cities-2006.html , http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0921299.html , http://www.infoplease.com/us/cities/safest-dangerous-cities.html

I had a question for anyone who could answer. I have recenlty, after sitting on the register for 6 months, been sent several letters asking me to interview. After sending in all my information I have interviewed several times for the position of corrections casework trainee(cc/pp). However, the true job I wanted is Probation and Parole. I get the chance this week to interview for P and P 1. Are the interview questions similar to those of the position of caseworker? I like to be prepared and want to put my best foot forward. I have a Bachelor's in Social Psychology in which I graduated *** Laude and have enough CJ courses (including one in probation and parole casework) to have a minor. I am currently working on a Master's with a 4.0 average and plan to continue on with a Masters in Criminal Justice while working on my PhD in Psychology. My dedication and education is there. My problem is that all my experience is in business and it seems like a tough break for me to get in to this field. Is it truly this hard through the whole state? Anyone have any tips on the interview process? I have been researching Missouri department of probation, but am still nervous about all the questions and being able to answer them correctly. I almost died after my interview for caseworker when after several detailed questions about the basics of the Missouri system I was asked "do you know what due process is?" and I almost couldn't remember something so simple! Of course I knew just regurgitating it was a bit difficult. Lol! Like I said if anyone knows anything that can be of help to me in preparing, it's important to me. I have a dedication and love for the field of psychology and the criminal mind. Well and to human services, so I'd appreciate any help. Thanks in advance!

HIring has been severly limited over the past 6 months for budgetary reasons. The interview questions are pretty straight forward and arent meant to trick anyone. They just want to know that you have a good understanding of our offenders and the CJ system. They are really looking for keywords in your answers. They want to know that you have an understanding of the disease concept of addiction and can empathize with offenders. The questions may sound technical but they dont expect anyone to get the answer completely, just have a solid understanding of what the question is about. I know we will be hiring in the St Louis area soon. We typically hire about 40 -50 PO's a year in our area just due to turnover. With the economy down we have fewer officers leaving for other jobs so the turnover has declined dramatically. We will probably only hire 20 in this area this year. Good luck with the interview.

I just interviewed for a PO1 job in Southwest MO and just as the previous post mentioned, they asked questions looking for a basic, general knowledge of human and criminal behavior. Your extensive education in Psych will help you with that (my degree is in psych and I was told after the interview that I did the best interview of the round). The last part of the interview is situational; they will pose a situation and ask you how you would respond. You will be interviewed by a panel made up of three supervisors. If the interview is successful, you will be called for a background interview within two-three weeks. After that, they will notify you of the outcome within two weeks. I too like to be prepared so I spent several days looking up potential interview questions, only to find out during the interview that the questions for which I prepared weren't even mentioned! Your best preparation is the ability to communicate extremely well and with confidence (but not arrogance), enough self-awareness to understand why you want to be a PO, a good night's sleep and some deep breathing before your interview. And get rid of the idea that you need to answer each question "correctly" or perfectly. Trust that you already know the answer and you will be fine! You are obviously intelligent; keep reminding yourself of that on the way to the interview. My only question for you is why, with your ambitious and admirable educational goals, would you want to work as a PO? In certain areas of MO, most PO's work with probationers, not parolees. I imagine you would get so much more experience working and studying the criminal mind by working corrections in a prison setting rather than in a community setting. Keep in mind that you don't need to work as a PO to get some PO training. Most Missouri PO offices allow volunteers, where you will work with a current PO and serve him/her as an assistant. This is also an option if you, for some reason, don't get offered a position. Volunteering for 150 hours will give you an extra 5 points on your Merit score, which will improve your future chances at a position. Hope this helps. Good Luck!

MFoley- Thank you for responding! Your response helped! I did go over addiction, but they didn't ask me anything on addiction. They asked me a lot about criminal behavior and about situational. There were many questions I really didn't know what I would do to so I gave it my best shot and just said "you know my judgement would tell me this isn't a safe situation, though I am not suppose to "judge people" I would ask a superior for advice since I question what I would do." So I gave it my best shot and was honest. They all nodded and laughed a couple times so i think I did pretty good. We will see if I get the call back in a couple of weeks. Like I said though thank you for the advice.

Almost A Trainee- Good luck on your call back- I the same as you am waiting. I think I did ok. I made them laugh and was capable of admitting my flaws. However, I am in no way a "jokester" but when you can break the tension when your being joked with a little is a good thing. It took some of those butterflies away. The sad part is that in graduate School I maintain a 4.0 so that I can go on to get my PhD, I have so much confidience in my education because whereI go to school you have to maintain a 94% to get an A. When I interview others through all my business positions I am never nervous, same when I practice interviewing for my Graduate degree, but I go into an interview and I feel like I am under the microscope and get butterflies. They posed those same situational questions and criminal behavior questions as you said. They told me the process of the cal back as well. The difference is I am in NW corner fo Missouri and there were people driving from KC up here. I understand the issues of rural life since I live here so I hope that helps me out some. Oh and yes I am ambitious, very ambitious, and I do want to work in the prison setting. However, it is much harder to get into casework than probation and parole. I did have two interviews for case work, 1 at the end of June and one the second of July. Now I am just waiting to hear something. I even want the letter telling me why they didn't pick me. Patience never was my virtue. Also I figure with being a PO it gives me that start. I also put in my volunteer paperwork 2 weeks before I got the letter to interview, so I assume they are waiting on this before they determine if I can volunteer. Thanks for the advice and input!!!

As I am retired and Evidence Based Practice came about as I was leaving, I cannot speak with any real knowledge other than to say that I know of no one who has any faith in it and most are just now interested in "running out the clock" to retirement or putting in their eight hours so they can draw a check and go home. It is my believe that just about everything that has been done within the last few years has been aimed at "Zero Population Growth" in the prisons and that in order to truly be effective, Probation and Parole needs to be autonomous from DOC. I worked for DOC for a short time before transferring to P&P and it is a whole different mindset. P&P is not set up for the safety of the community or the benefit of the community, but rather as a relief valve for DOC. For the person looking for a job with P&P, yes it varies from one area of the state to the next as some must dig pretty deep into the register to get applicants. I never hired anyone with a score below the mid eighties and more often upper eighties into the nineties while the urban areas and some of the poorer or less desirable areas will dip into the seventies. If you are qualified to be a P&P Officer in St. Louis or KC, chances are you can get a much better paying job. Also mention was made of Field Officers working more with probationers than parolees. This is true, but an IPO actually has limited contact with parolees, so if you want casework, you will need to go into the field. Most of the Federal Probation Officers in several areas came from the ranks of Missouri P&P. Some of my Officers and friends went federal after a few years and the pay is about twice what the state pays, so Missouri P&P is a good "stepping stone" so to speak. Good luck.

I'm considering applying to be a probation/parole officer in Missouri and was hoping for some information about the program. How does it compare to other state parole agencies? Is there more of an emphasis on rehabilitation/counseling versus law enforcement/surveillance than other states? Is is collaborative -- do you interact with other POs, caseworkers, community orgs, etc... -- or are you on your own? What's the training like? What's the attitude toward the parolees? Thanks much.

I think MO is very balanced between rehabilitation and enforcement. We have good relationships with other treatment and communtiy agencies. The rural areas tend to have better relationships with the police. Rural areas have PO's more spread out so they do more work alone. We are on top of each other in the more populated areas and work as teams all the time. We have a 6 week training program before you start. Attitude toward parolees varies based on the PO. The department line would be we work with them to guide them towards success while keeping community safety in mind. I think most PO's would agree with that.

Thanks much. I was originally considering program work in corrections, but because states don't seem to have much money for that right now and because a lot of in-prison programs as so poorly run, I'm looking at re-entry work and community corrections. I'd really like to work for a progressively-minded state parole agency, one that tries to do what they can for parolees -- i.e., doesn't conceive of itself as purely law enforcement -- but is serious about protecting the community. Missouri has been mentioned by a few sources as fitting this description. Does the jibe with your experience?

Brooklyn, but I've got no issues with moving Missouri. I work as a journalist, but want to do a job where I work more directly with people. Thank again for the advice. I'm sending in my application on Monday.

There is essentially no Law Enforcement component in Missouri Probation and Parole at this time, so if Law Enforcement. is a concern you will have no problems. Officers do have the option of being armed, but accepted use is essentially the same as any citizen with a concealed carry permit, Officers cannot make arrests under any circumstances. Fewer and fewer are carrying weapons. Officers even in the rural offices spend little time in the field unlike in the past. All of the Officers I know get pretty bored as they are now restricted in the number of offender contacts they can make; hard to accomplish much seeing somene once every three months. Several have been able to transition to the Feds, but that is pretty Law Enforcement though the pay is more than double.

Huh. If they aren't making offender contacts, how are they spending their day?

We make plenty of contacts. The average PO I know sees 20 or so offenders a week. There is a great divide right now as some officers like the changes and some dont. I wont hash it out on a message board. I have never known that an officer was told they could not see an offender as often as they needed to accomplish changes.

jthune, Well I live in Missouri, have a BS in social psych (*** laude), am graduating with my MA (a 4.0 g.p.a.), and going to get another MA and work towards my PhD. I have a desire and personal history that gives me an extreme interest and understanding beyond education of the corrections and Probation and Parole. I have gone clear through the process of becoming a P and P and am now waiting on the decision. If you are looking to apply you can do it online at https://www.ease.mo.gov/ease/logon.jsp . Once you do that then you will be automatically signed up to do the merit exam. It asks basic questions about the understanding of human behavior and change. It also has short work related examples and explains them then has you do them. I scored a 90 on it and if I am not chosen I am going back to retake it again. Anyway they will schedule you to take that on a saturday, generally the first one of the month. After that you are then put on the register. Highering is limited right now, very. Then when your name is selected for the areas you are willing to work, you go to the interview round. If you pass that and they want you, along with a few others, you do the back ground investigation. Then they will let you know after that if you are highered or desireable just not the one they chose, so you become available as other slots open, as it was explained to me. You do realize that to be honest the process has taken me about 6 months to get through the whole things and am now just waiting on them to pick the final person? Also a P and P 1 only pays $1191.50 twice a month starting out. the bennefits are awesome, however, you have to be real about the pay. To make a move halfway across country, you have to be pretty dedicated. I have heard people joke about corrections and how quick the turn over is and how it must not be that hard. Let me tell you take it from someone who only demands excellence from herself and has tried to lead her whole life doing better, it isn't that easy to get into. Good luck with the process and I am glad to have the chance to get to respond to you.

Much thanks for the advice. I'm firm on wanting to work in correctional re-entry. The money sucks, but it's the work I want to do.

MFoley, I have worked in urban and rural areas and still have friends who work throughout the state. I was told in no uncertain terms to inform my Officers that offenders were to be seen at the level of supervision as indicated and to monitor contacts to make sure the level of contacts did not exceed that. If this was done it was to be noted on the Performance Log as well the yearly audit when discovered. My personal philosophy was to make multiple contacts with a minimum of a POV and a PHV or PEV and for those unemployed from weekly to daily to discuss job search efforts. Fortunately I was allowed to do this, but this was not allowed for my Officers by the time I retired. I am not trying to "hash" anything out on a message board, but don't tell me something doesn't happen when I have seen it done and regularly communicate with Officers, Units and DA's. A person needs to know what they might be getting into. As to what an Officer does when not seeing people, they are typing their own reports and doing data entry and in many places routine clerical duties as clerical are in short supply.

I'll just say St. Louis and KC operate differently. I'm going by what policy states. Nothing more or less. In a 10 to 12 hour report day an officer can dedicate 20 to 30 minutes per client. That easily meets the standards of Motivational Interviewing. If they have issues that require more frequent contact officers are expected to make that contact on this side of the state.