Don't cut probation: Probation system is already failing; don't cut funds

With North Carolina's probation system in shambles cutting funding to crime and punishment programs which include the probation system would further hinder the state's ability to keep track of offenders.

Poor oversight along with underpaid and overworked probation officers has left potentially dangerous offenders free to roam the streets without supervision.

But a recently proposed budget cut calls for an estimated 7 percent reduction in funding a measure that would impede the state's efforts to reform its probation system.

According to a study by The (Raleigh) News & Observer14000 of 114000 probationers in the state are unaccounted for. Since the start of 2000 580 offenders have committed murder or manslaughter while under the watch of the N.C. Division of Community Corrections.

Failures of the state's probation system hit close to home for students last spring in the wake of the killing of former Student Body President Eve Carson.

The men accused of killing Carson received inadequate attention from Durham probation officers who failed to act when warned about Demario Atwater's arrests for firearms and drug charges. Atwater should have been behind bars.

The state's probation system is set up to avoid overcrowded prisons and to help reintegrate offenders back into society.

In addition according to the N.C. Department of Correction probation is a much cheaper alternative to prison. For each offender housed in state prison last year N.C. taxpayers paid an average of $74.77 a day. Probation costs depending on the required level of supervision are as little as 83 cents per day per probationer.

Although administrative restructuring is needed in order for the system to work efficiently retention of probation officers must be the number one priority.

In order to keep probation officers on the job the state must keep wages constant and provide better tracking of criminals on probation. Both initiatives will require at least the current level of funding if not more.

North Carolina's probation crisis requires immediate action and cannot go ignored any longer. It is a matter of public safety. Cutting funds to the state's crime and punishment programs is not an option.