"How can we afford not to?"

I rememebr the Governors first act was to sign the anit-murder legislation. The publics question was how can we afford to pay for it. His quote was how can we afford not to pay for it. Now budget crucnch time and who is taking the hit? The prisons and probation.

I truly thought he believed in public safety. Now there is talk of cuts in prisons and decimation of the ranks of the probation side.

Administration is taking a 10% cut. P&P will be losing more than 14%. I guess there is no value placed on community corrections. I guess the Governor believes that we are a joke.

When crime goes up and the poop hits the fan he will ultimately be the one with egg on his face. "How could I not have foreseen the increase in crime rate when I ran on an anti-crime ticket and then reduiced capabilities?" I hope his quote reads something like that. I doubt it though it will be more pandering to the media.

Why is it so easy to cut that deep? Why is there no hue cand cry?

[Open Carry Man]

Why is it so easy to cut that deep? Why is there no hue cand cry?

One reason is that probation officers have not worked hard enough, as a group, to counter the undeserved negative light in which we are seen in many quarters. Part of the is the fault of the PBA; I consider our past President to have been exceptionally weak in this regard. (I'm waiting to see what Mr. Gordon does here.)

Part of it is that we are seen as whiners and gripers by those in authority that read these forums. Reading some of these threads would lead a lot of people to think that the lot of us are like the more ridiculous and egregious posters on this site. (The folks that down the profession, down their colleagues, and do little but launch personal attacks; those are who I'm talking about.)

It would be harder to cut us deep if we projected ourselves as folks that the cutters would not want to hurt. Something to think about for those who are about to start a post about a topic that is both mean-spirited and ungermane to the well-being of probation officers. We should be EDIFYING our profession and our colleagues, not tearing them down.

[CPSO North]

[quote="CSM HOPE":1nfj84o0]Why is it so easy to cut that deep? Why is there no hue cand cry?

One reason is that probation officers have not worked hard enough, as a group, to counter the undeserved negative light in which we are seen in many quarters. Part of the is the fault of the PBA; I consider our past President to have been exceptionally weak in this regard. (I'm waiting to see what Mr. Gordon does here.)

Part of it is that we are seen as whiners and gripers by those in authority that read these forums. Reading some of these threads would lead a lot of people to think that the lot of us are like the more ridiculous and egregious posters on this site. (The folks that down the profession, down their colleagues, and do little but launch personal attacks; those are who I'm talking about.)

It would be harder to cut us deep if we projected ourselves as folks that the cutters would not want to hurt. Something to think about for those who are about to start a post about a topic that is both mean-spirited and ungermane to the well-being of probation officers. We should be EDIFYING our profession and our colleagues, not tearing them down.[/quote:1nfj84o0]

I agree 100%. We hae always operated in stealth mode and have been fairly invisible to the powers that be. I honestly believe that most legislators, etc. have the same idea about probation work as I did many years ago before I started. When a handful of them do ride alongs (even though those are mostly sanitized shows put on by the regions) they actually get an idea of the role we play. Think about how everything filters through us. Probation is the hub through which everything connects. I am proud to do this job, despite several rounds of burnout. Officers have to respect what they do or no one else will. How tempting is it for most to join office gripe sessions, or post immature, petty complaints on this board ? I have been tempted to gripe, and more importantly I have seen others tempted to step away from their work ethic because they feel they are entitled to do so. They want more money, more respect, less criticism, less bureaucracy so they feel justified in doing the job by the numbers and refuse to put any effort or heart into it. This will be our downfall. Morale is not driven by money (although I would like more) or any of the other secondary things. It is driven by a common sense of purpose and the idea that our roles are vital to the wellbeing of our cities and towns. Even in terrible financial times, our leaders need to do all they can to boost morale. Do whatever it takes, and get the troops enthused about doing what needs to be done. If probation takes a dive, then the fallout will effect crime rates, judicial efficiency, incarceration rates, drug use rates, and so on ad infinitum. Experienced members of the corrections community understand that cutting prisons or probation will cost us dearly in the future.

We need to make the ones holding the strings to the near-empty purse understand that. We need Judges, State Attorneys, criminal justice experts, etc. to make some noise. Most of all, PBA needs to say SOMETHING. Someone with some media savvy needs to get some press, and I thought that this was something PBA was good at. I haven't even received a Hotsheet lately to let me know that someone, somewhere is busting their arse to protect this profession.

a probation ride along are you kidding. that makes us look even more retarded. they would take special risk from us in a minute. if we get special risk then djj and dcf and everyother non profit agency that does field work should get it. special risk is for fireman and police not us.

a probation ride along are you kidding. that makes us look even more retarded. they would take special risk from us in a minute. if we get special risk then djj and dcf and everyother non profit agency that does field work should get it. special risk is for fireman and police not us.

So you would take it away fro CO's too?

NO PROBATION IS NOT SPECIAL RISK HENCE MOST DONOT GET IT THROUGHOUT THE USA. IT IS A WASTE OF MONEY. 90 PERCENT DONT WORK IN A SPECIAL RISK CAPACITY. THE STATE IS GOING TO ADDRESS THIS AND GET RID OF IT DURING THESE ROUGH TIMES.

NO PROBATION IS NOT SPECIAL RISK HENCE MOST DONOT GET IT THROUGHOUT THE USA. IT IS A WASTE OF MONEY. 90 PERCENT DONT WORK IN A SPECIAL RISK CAPACITY. THE STATE IS GOING TO ADDRESS THIS AND GET RID OF IT DURING THESE ROUGH TIMES.

Tell me oh bright shining star how does special risk cost money now. It isn't spent until retirement time. Unless you are going to retire if so would you please return the special risk you have accrued as you don't feel you earn it. It would be the moral thing to do.

doc probation and special risk no way put it on the chopping block,,,we are not special risk worthy :shock:

[CPSO North]

doc probation and special risk no way put it on the chopping block,,,we are not special risk worthy :shock:

Don't bother to argue with type of poster. He/she is obviously a troll and not an officer. If they are an officer AND are arguing to lose benefits that would effect their own retirement and security then they are fools and their argument can be disregarded as uninformed nonsense.

get rid of special risk we are no doing special risk work, lets give special risk to pretrail,misd probation,drug tx case manager, juv diversion program workers,ddj probation officers,dcf , postal service employee,fpl meter readers... :lol:

get rid of special risk it will SAVE LOTS OF $$$$$$$$$$ :wink:

get rid of special risk we are no doing special risk work, lets give special risk to pretrail,misd probation,drug tx case manager, juv diversion program workers,ddj probation officers,dcf , postal service employee,fpl meter readers... :lol:

get rid of special risk it will SAVE LOTS OF $$$$$$$$$$ :wink:

Ok bonehead how does cutting special risk save money? How much money? And when can we expect these savings? You want instant savings? Fire your sorry azz right now.