Reference no: EM133285239

Case Study - You have been a parole officer for approximately five years. You really love your job and have met a number of offenders that you've worked well with and assisted in completing their supervision. Most recently, a parolee, Mike Jones, was assigned to your caseload. Mike is a likable guy about your same age. He served 8 years in prison for drug charges. Mike was married prior to going to prison, but his wife divorced him, was incarcerated for prostitution and child abuse charges, and his two children with her were placed into state care. Mike was ordered to pay for one-half of their care while he was incarcerated. Of course, Mike did not have the money to pay for the child support while in prison and is now over $15,000 in arrears.

Mike was also the legal father of a third child by his wife because he was married to her when she became pregnant. Although he was incarcerated when she became pregnant, he was ordered for two years to pay child support for that child until he voluntary terminated his parental rights. Because of the mother's incarceration, the state terminated her parental rights, and the child was adopted to another family.

Mike was a model prisoner and received a GED while incarcerated. He also worked in the metal shop and gained skills in welding. Mike completed drug therapy and attended psychological counselling. He did not see his children while he was incarcerated, but he did write letters to them weekly.

Today, during Mike's appointment with you, he mentioned trying to get custody of his children. He also stated that he wanted to find the third child, since she is his kids' sibling. Mike has also been struggling to find a job, only has about three weeks left to live in his current residence, and has not made a payment on the court-ordered child support since his release. His mandatory payment date is next week.

At this point, you have concerns that Mike will be unsuccessful on parole. If he misses his child support payment, you will have to write up a technical violation report. If he fails to find suitable employment in the next month, you will also have to write a technical violation report. If Mike does not have a place to live and does not notify you immediately of a new place to live, he will be in violation of his parole. The agency policy is that three technical violations results in a revocation hearing in front of the judge. During the meeting, you counselled Mike on the pressures he is facing, provided him information on a half-way house, a homeless shelter, and asked about his ability to continue living in his current place. You also discussed the fact that perhaps this is not the best time to worry about regaining custody-although it broke your heart to hear him talk about missing his kids and wanting to help them.

Questions for Discussion -

1. What issues do you think are most crucial for Mike to address in order to remain on parole? What additional services can you provide to Mike?

2. Knowing that you have a rather large caseload, how much time should you dedicate to this case? Can you actually work to resolve these issues or are these Mike's responsibilities to resolve? Using service quality approaches, what should you do?

3. How might you alleviate Mike's concerns about his kids, without actually working to help him retain custody? What would you do? Is this within your roles and responsibilities? Why or why not?