Internationally accomplished software provider Tyler Technologies* offers advice for Community Corrections officers on how to supervise offenders while maintaining social distancing.
Working in the public sector and dealing with citizens during the pandemic has been a challenge.
This is certainly true for Community Corrections throughout the country, where face-to-face check ins and in-person visits are key parts of the job.
How do you supervise offenders with social distancing?
By leveraging technology and using the more powerful, advanced features of your case management system (CMS), you can maintain supervision and keep up with caseloads, while maintaining social distancing measures.
Here are a few supervision tools you can use:
Automated Telephone Check-ins
Using voice biometrics to verify identity paired with the offender’s data in the CMS, phone check-ins can ask questions related to the offender’s status and enable probation officers to maintain contact either weekly or monthly.
Any new offender details will automatically update in the CMS, saving probation officer’s time from having to enter the information manually.
If there are check-in issues, the CMS alerts the probation officer to contact the offender. This alert system allows officers to focus on higher priority tasks and new cases, instead of constantly surveilling their offender’s check-in status.
Electronic Monitoring Check-ins
Electronic monitoring makes it easy to keep track of higher-risk cases where constant surveillance is required. Paired with an integrated tracking ankle bracelet, your CMS will keep constant tabs on the offender’s movements.
For those offenders with travel restrictions, you can create specific zones to ensure the offender only goes to pre-approved locations.
Built-in alerts notify probation officers if an offender moves into a restricted zone, allowing the officer to focus on other work instead of staring at a screen all day.
Monitoring high-risk cases, instead of offenders being incarcerated, can help reduce the number of prisoners and therefore the volume of people visiting those prisoners to further aid in social distancing and reduce pressure on the overall corrections system.
Remote Field Tools
With a web-based CMS, officers have access to the supervision applications they need wherever there is an internet connection, allowing them to work from just about anywhere.
Using a smartphone or tablet, officers can view caseloads, conduct check-ins, add case notes, and easily add images as needed, all of which automatically updates in the offender’s file in the CMS.
Smart Office Lobby
Want to avoid an over-crowded waiting area?
Maintain social distancing by creating your own “smart lobby”. Using an enhanced lobby check-in process, you can leverage text messaging to control the flow of offenders into your building.
When the day of the in-person office appointment arrives, the offender receives a text message reminder from the system with instructions to reply “here” and wait outside upon arrival.
That “here” text triggers a system alert to the officer that the offender has arrived. When the officer is ready to meet and starts the interview in the CMS, the offender receives a message that their officer is ready, and it is okay to enter the waiting area.
Click here to learn more about how one office successfully implemented remote check-ins in four days to monitor probationers during the pandemic.
* For more information on how Tyler Technologies solutions can help empower your public sector organisation, click here.
