supervision grew by 5.3% from the previous year; and
WHEREAS, Meanwhile, the number of people on community
supervision declined by 1.5% nationally during the same period;
and
WHEREAS, The growing population of adults under supervision
and increasing responsibilities, including those relating to
registration of sex offenders, ignition interlock for driving
under the influence offenders and collecting DNA samples from
offenders, have placed a burden on county adult probation and
parole; and
WHEREAS, Each county probation department operates
independently of the others and on the basis of its own polices
and procedures with no parent agency to facilitate
communications among the departments or to ensure that best
practices are used in each county; and
WHEREAS, This burden is increasingly straining county budgets
and officer caseloads are rising to untenable rates while
recidivism is unchanged; and
WHEREAS, Reducing community supervision terms would allow
Pennsylvania's probation and parole supervising agencies to
focus on individuals for the period of time they are at the
greatest risk of offending; and
WHEREAS, The General Assembly is currently considering
legislation to provide additional funding and training to
probation and parole officers, providing Statewide guidelines
for addressing minor infractions of supervision and
incentivizing good behavior through early termination of
probation; and
WHEREAS, The whole of these reforms promise to refocus
community supervision on successful rehabilitation and reentry
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