Thursday, August 11, 2005

Travis County can't find 39% of probationers

UPDATE (8-18): Probation absconder numbers inflated, counties say

Thanks to Solutions for Texas for linking to the
full consultant's report evaluating the Dallas probation system. Lots of interesting stuff here, but offhand I hadn't seen before a detailed breakdown of the 77,000 probation "absconders" statewide. Absconders are people who have not successfully completed probation, but who stop checking in with their probation officer and whom the state has lost track of -- the fruits of a failing system.

As it turns out, Austin-Travis County's probation department has the worst rate of absconders among large counties: Travis can't locate a whopping 39% of the probationers under their charge, nearly double the rate of Dallas County, which has the second highest absconder rate.

That's ridiculous. The phrase "community supervision" loses all meaning when you can't even locate 39% of those who are "supervised." You can thank Governor Perry for disastrously vetoing the Legislature's thoughtful fix to this mess.

Here are stats on absconders for the ten most populous counties from the consultant's report:

Absconders at Texas' Largest Probation Departments
Source: Dallas consultant's report (pdf)

County

Total Supervision Population


Percent Absconding in County

Total Absconders

Dallas

51,269

11,335

22.00%

Harris

39,039

4,845

12.00%

Bexar

25,158

4,513

18.00%

Tarrant

21,528

2,665

12.00%

Travis

21,188

8,221

39.00%

El Paso

18,698

3,272

17.00%

Hidalgo

17,055

2,332

14.00%

Cameron

8,907

1,493

17.00%

Collin

8,029

1,265

16.00%

Denton

7,342

905

12.00%

Rest of State

211,371

36,593

17.31%

State Total

429,584

77,439

18.03%


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