North Carolina Probation/Parole Officer Workload Study

Gary Cuddeback, Ph.D., M.S.W., M.P.H., Principal Investigator

In many states, there has been a remarkable increase in the number of individuals who are placed on community supervision arrangements at the same time that resources for probation and parole officers have decreased. More information is needed about reasonable caseload size, the needs of offenders and officers’ ability to meet those needs, and the application of evidence-based practices in the criminal justice system. Funded by the North Carolina Department of Correction, a multidisciplinary team representing the fields of social work, criminology and sociology from the School of Social Work and the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) is conducting a mixed-methods study of probation/parole officer workload issues in North Carolina. The study includes an analysis of administrative data, the development and implementation of a web-based survey, and focus groups, key informant interviews and direct field observation. Gary S. Cuddeback, Ph.D., is the principal investigator. Mindy Bradley-Engen, Ph.D., and Mathew Gayman, Ph.D., both post-docs at the Sheps Center, are co-investigators.