Probation Problems

Probation Problems

State probation chief Robert Guy said last month during a news conference that he was embarrassed at how his division's Wake County office handled the case of Demario Atwater, a suspect in the slaying of UNC-CH student body president Eve Carson. But documents and interviews show that Guy had known, at least since 2004, about shoddy work in Wake County that could threaten public safety. Beginning in 2001, files at the Division of Community Corrections show a series of warning signs from the Wake office, which watches more than 7,500 offenders. Top-level management teams parachuted into the office in 2004 and 2006 to untangle problems with high vacancy and turnover rates.

The problems often meant probation officers were overburdened by juggling large numbers of offenders, who often got little supervision. Each time, the office imposed a crisis plan to sort out the mess. One plan encouraged managers to serve punch and snacks to boost recruitment. A 2006 internal audit revealed the Wake office was failing basic tasks such as filling out time sheets and tracking state-owned cars and office supplies. Subsequent audits found that many problems went unsolved. The problems in Wake's office went unnoticed by the public until Atwater was charged with Carson's murder. At last month's news conference, Guy said as many as 10 staff had touched the Atwater case and failed to act on problems with his supervision. Laurence Lovette, who is also charged in the Carson case and in the killing of Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato, was supervised in Durham County.

Guy acknowledged in an interview that he and his staff have seen the red flags for years. "I'm very shocked it's back in here again," he said. "We're through trying to come in and put Band-Aids on this and two years later it's right back where it was again. I thought we addressed it. Maybe it's on me." The state legislature, which convenes Tuesday, is expected to review recommendations on how technology could help probation officers. Guy said an internal review of the breakdowns in Wake and Durham counties will be finished within two weeks. No other county, save Durham, has had the history of problems that Wake County has, Guy said. Other urban areas in the state, including Charlotte and Winston-Salem, have the same heavy volume of cases but don't buckle under the stress. "I don't have these problems in other areas," Guy said.

(Sarah Ovaska and Joseph Neff, THE NEWS & Observer, 5/11/08).