SD- Parole Supervision In South Dakota

11-7-2009 South Dakota:

A team of nearly 40 South Dakota parole officers keep an eye on convicted felons when they're released from prison.

The work of parole officers across the country went under the microscope this week when the California Inspector General criticized parole officers in that state for missing several chances to stop a crime in its tracks.

Phillip Garrido is the man accused of kidnapping Jaycee Dugard when she was 11 years old and holding her captive for nearly two decades. California officials say parole officers missed hundreds chances to end the kidnapping that started when the convicted rapist was labeled a low risk offender.

In South Dakota there are 23 hundred recently released inmates being supervised by parole officers right now, but the agents say checking up on convicted felons on parole is just part of their job.

"Our main goal with parole would be to protect the public," Sioux Falls Parole Services Director Doug Clark said.

The protection starts with an assessment of the parolee, figuring out how much they should be supervised. Supervision ranges from intensive supervision to indirect. Every former inmate is placed in one of five categories, but that supervision isn't just based on the crimes that they've committed in the past.

"We look at things like employment and housing and attempt to stabilize those things because we know those things are very important," Clark said.

Having a stable job and a secure place to live will lower the chances of a convicted felon finding their way back to prison.

"That's going to make or break their parole, whether or not they can be employed, whether or not they can find stable housing and those types of things," Clark said.

That's why parole officers not only supervise but also assist in finding jobs for the offenders, because they know protecting the community takes more than just a few visits every month.

"The goal being to reduce the risk, their criminagenic risk and needs, to a point where their behavior changes and there is no returning to prison or returning to crime," Clark said.

Clark says parole officers do have different monitoring techniques for sex offenders. Every sex offender who is released from prison in South Dakota takes a polygraph test three months after their release, and then every six months after that. The goal is to check up on their behavior and make sure they aren't a risk to the public. ..Source.. by Ben Dunsmoor