Probation caseloads double in four years, two probation officers added

Aug. 10—TRAVERSE CITY — Grand Traverse County commissioners unanimously agreed to grant the 86th District Court's request for two additional probation officers.

Commissioners learned of the district court's plight at a recent board meeting when Judge Robert Cooney and court administrators Gwen Taylor and Melanie Catinella told them how desperately their department needed these positions.

"What I want to stress this morning is that our court's probation department is in crisis, and I don't that word lightly, we have seen our caseload double," Cooney said. "Emails and phone calls go unanswered because there are so many cases."

Based on calculations by the Grand Traverse Finance Department, the county would be responsible for $114,951.58 out of $156,396.71 for the total cost of the two positions. Antrim and Leelanau counties would pay for the remaining 26.5 percent.

According to data provided by Catinella and Taylor, probation officers saw a daily caseload increase from 114 in 2019 to 210 in 2023 while the total number of officers has gone down.

When the Jail Reduction Act first took effect in 2021, Cooney explained the court took preemptive "fiscally responsible" measures and cut down on the number of full-time probation officers from 7.3 to six.

Out of those six officers, three of them are dedicated to handling cases in the Sobriety and Drug Court programs, according to Taylor.

This means that it's an "unmanageable caseload for the three remaining probation officers," she explained.

The treatment courts are the most studied and have the most data compared to any other court in the 86th District.

These programs were founded by Cooney in 2018 as a way to help treat substance and alcohol use disorders instead of sending people to jail for drug or alcohol related felonies.

Since starting a few years ago, he said the recidivism rate for participants in the treatment courts has been as low as 4 percent, and has stayed in the single digits.

Comparatively, for folks who have not gone through the program, they experience recidivism half the time, or 50 percent.

"That's because we truly take the time and the effort," Cooney said.

Graduation rates for the treatment court program are around 60 percent, court data shows.

Currently, there are 48 Sobriety Court participants and 25 Drug Court participants from Grand Traverse County, according to court records.

Nearly 100 percent of these cases are felonies, Catinella explained during the meeting.

Since the pre-pandemic cut of county compliance and probation officers, Judge Cooney cited that the court has struggled with timely sentencing and enforcing violations.

"This is not a problem of employees not wanting to do their job," he explained. "We have some very good employees that are getting burned out and frankly it's not fair to them anymore. I don't think this is how you'd want to see a department of the county run."

Without the right amount of probation officers on staff, Cooney said the court could face public safety issues, less effective rehabilitation efforts, higher likelihood of recidivism, more jail sentences and spillover into the treatment courts.

Every one of the county commissioners agreed with him, and were in support of adding the two new positions.

Chairman Rob Hentschel said he only had one question for Cooney after the presentation.

"Are you asking for enough?" he asked, then added that, when it comes time for next year's budget, if the court needs more funds for more positions, they should approach the board again.

"I'm going to be supporting this because it's imperative to have our public safety in place and have the victim's family have the opportunity to see justice happen now," Commissioner Penny Morris said.

All of the court's current probation officers were in attendance when the commissioners agreed to pass the motion.