Arizona's Caseload Crisis

Taylor McCormick Dec. 9, 2022

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.– While probation is used as an alternative to the prison system to promote rehabilitation, several Arizona counties are undergoing a caseload crisis due to the current staffing shortage.  

The standard ratio of probation officers to clients is 1-to-65 for standard and 1-to-25 for intensive, but counties like Pima continue to see numbers exceed this. 

Due to the increase in clients and shortage of staff, judges begin to turn to packing jails. The courts must know that the probation departments have enough resources to carry out their duties properly. This is necessary because probation versus incarceration is a risk when re-introducing clients into society. 

In Pima County, exceeding ratios of 1-to-71 for standard probation and 1-to-32 for intensive probation are seen, straining overworked and underpaid staff.  

Presentence reports are an important job for the role of probation officers, which consists of a write-up from victims, family members and the client themselves to decide an appropriate sentence. A separate field officer then supervises the client. 

“The caseload crisis affects both the field and the pre-sentence staffing levels,” said Susan Burkhart, a Pima County probation officer. “The courts will get incomplete and inaccurate reports if we cannot maintain the staffing levels.” 

Burkhart has been serving the last 30 years in the field with the last 16 being in Tucson. For her, she completes three to four pre-sentence reports a week on average, but during the crisis, she does up to seven a week. 

“There are probationers not getting the help they need and probationers who are over-supervised,” Burkhart said. “Pima County has many specialized caseloads while the rest of the state does not. This means if a field PO with a small niche clientele might be waiting for a certain offender to be sentenced and have a small caseload, while standard POs have too many clients. If Pima County equalized the caseloads better, the probationer could get the help they need.” 

A major issue Pima County faces is the low wages for their probation staff, unintentionally turning away qualified candidates, leading to unproportional staffing issues compared to clientele numbers. 

“Pima County is having a huge problem retaining probation officers as our pay is much less than other counties,” Burkhart said. “Any new hires will be placed in Field Services, affecting our staffing issues in Court Services.” 

For Coconino County, the turnover rate for their probation officers is causing the opposite of a caseload crisis with less staff leading to less clients.  

According to the chief probation officer for the Coconino County Adult Probation Department, Sarah Douthit, the turnover calls for a focus towards supporting a good environment in the workplace and cooperation with investors. 

“A lot of my time has changed to both a lot of culture work in our department and also advocacy with our other stakeholders to try to get additional resources and support for staff,” Douthit said. 

Douthit has been serving the community in the line of corrections for 24 years while serving as chief for almost seven years. She has seen how the turnover affects the consistency within the correctional department, with some clients having up to three different probation officers within three years, creating challenges for them to make successful changes. 

Considering this, Douthit shares what Coconino is doing to prevent itself from experiencing the same crises other counties are currently facing. 

“Really early on in the pandemic, we took some efforts to essentially stop doing some programs that weren’t mandated by law and really prioritize our staff and resources to probation supervision, which is mandatory by law,” Douthit said. “We actually had to cut some of our pretrial supervision services to reallocate those people to field supervision positions, so that carries its own consequences.” 

While the over cap caseload is not an issue, the dramatic turnover rates have proved to show a different challenge Douthit and her staff must overcome. 

“It takes time to train new people, it takes time for people to feel confident in this rather challenging role,” Douthit said. “A lot of it has to do with hiring and retention and we have so many new people. You may have read in the Daily Sun article that almost half of our staff have two or less years in the field, so when that happens, we spend a lot more time training people to just know the basics of the job.” 

Whether it is an increase in caseloads or high turnover rates, it is no secret how all communities and families are affected by the probation crises.  

“For family members of people involved in the system, it might mean that their loved one spends more time in jail or prison, which is unfortunate,” Douthit said. “For the community, they need to know that people are being safely monitored and that’s our primary focus. The long-term impact if this continues could potentially be public safety.” 

So far, Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel has suggested an increase in competitive pay to combat the turnover rates and shortages. Arizona courts continue to ask the state for $17 million to supply funding for adequate resources and salary for adult probation programs. 

Soon after the shortage was declared state-wide, Flagstaff implemented a local police academy in partnership with Coconino Community College’s Lone Tree Campus, the first one in decades. Class cycles of four days a week in two main classrooms began in October and will continue in April to not overlap with other post academies in surrounding counties.