DWI rules worry probation officials
North country probation officials fear yet another state funding cut could leave departments ill-equipped to handle new supervision requirements for drunken-driving offenders.
Gov. David A. Paterson has proposed a 10 percent across-the-board funding cut for probation departments in his 2010-11 executive budget even as caseloads grow, said Francine M. Perretta, St. Lawrence County probation director.
"Ten percent is a huge decrease for us, on top of 12 percent in 2009 and 6 percent in 2008," she said. "We're literally doing more with less. I swear, almost every month there is a new law that somehow reflects on probation caseloads."
Ms. Perretta said in-depth risk assessments for probationers to determine how much supervision they need have helped her staff cope with growing caseloads and more supervision requirements for some offenders, but more rules are coming. A law requiring vehicle ignition interlocks — breath-testing devices to ensure sobriety behind the wheel — for all drunken-driving offenders will take effect in August.
"I know I'm not going to be able to ask for three more officers to help supervise and do the investigations," said Edward E. Brown, Jefferson County probation director. "We have really been accustomed to having more felony DWI offenders being on probation, but now including the misdemeanors will be a whole different gamut for our office."
Mr. Brown said records show his office conducted 72 presentence investigations in 2007, out of 665 driving-while-intoxicated cases that year. The total number of cases grew to 705 in 2008, he said.
"I guess when I heard about the law I thought it would impact us somewhat, but I was floored when I saw those numbers," he said. "For the governor to reduce our funding but pass legislation that will ultimately affect the way we do day-to-day business just doesn't make sense."
The state also will require DNA collection for every criminal conviction. Ms. Perretta said the governor's budget does not spell out clearly who is responsible for collecting the DNA, but the task could fall to probation departments. Combined with added DWI supervision, the work could be too much for her staff to handle if the state Legislature approves the governor's proposed funding cut, Ms. Perretta said.
"We could be clearly out of our depth next year. The national caseload average is one officer for 60 probationers. We're trying to keep ourselves in that range, and that, to me, is still a lot of people to supervise and supervise well," she said.
Randall A. Schell, Lewis County probation director, said the law also will add to his four officers' caseloads, but procedural changes could help ease the burden. He said there are 240 people on probation in Lewis County.
"We share the same worry, but we don't have anywhere near the number of DWI arrests that Jefferson County has," Mr. Schell said. "We average less than 100 a year. We're looking at maybe an additional 25 to 30 a year, which is substantial. We probably couldn't hire another officer, but it would have us taking a look at if there are some people we could discharge a little earlier than we can now."
