Toward Accountability: A Qualitative Assessment of Supervision Officers’ Responses to Noncompliance During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic placed new strains on community corrections including officers’ ability to enforce and respond to client noncompliance. With system-wide closures to courthouses, delays in case processing, and limited incarceration space, supervision officers were faced with new challenges regarding the availability of sanction response options. The goal of the current study was to examine how supervision officers responded to noncompliance when traditional, incarceration-based sanctions were largely unavailable. Drawing on qualitative interviews with American probation/parole officers (PPOs) ( n = 42), we identified several themes surrounding changes in officers’ strategies to address and respond to noncompliance. Results from thematic analysis suggest major changes in how PPOs monitored supervision compliance during the pandemic including changes to client supervision requirements, modality of contacts, and use of technology for remote surveillance. Findings also revealed changes in how PPOs applied traditional graduated sanctions during the pandemic. Implications of these findings are discussed.