Jamiel Brown remembers the call.
It was a cold January day, and Brown, a parole and probation officer (PPO) with Multnomah County’s Department of Community Justice, had just returned to his office. The voice on the end of the line trembled. It was a mother whose 38-year-old son was under Brown’s supervision. He had a warrant for failing to report to Brown.
The man had a history of drug abuse as well as harassment and assault - including the recent assault of a police officer. His mother, who had a restraining order against him, called Brown to tell him her son was coming down from a heroin high and was passed out in a back bedroom.
“Just before I hung up with her,” Brown recalls, “I heard him in the background yell ‘Who are you talking to?’”
“We didn’t know what was in there with him,” Brown says. “And he was animated, yelling, rambling and raving.” The man refused to leave his room. “So the most important thing was getting him out of the house because he was dangerous.”
Brown knew he needed backup; the man had a history with drugs and weapons. Brown also knew he needed to get there quickly. With help from Portland police and fellow PPOs, they worked together to talk the man out of the family’s home, where he’d barricaded himself in a back room, and end an hour-long standoff that could have turned violent. The man was taken to hospital for a mental health evaluation and then arrested.
The encounter highlights the multifaceted role Brown and PPOs must play, alongside law enforcement officers, when it comes to community safety. Yet most people don’t realize the critical part corrections officials play. This week, on July 16, corrections leaders are working to change that. They’re honoring PPOs emotionally demanding, dangerous and necessary work with Pretrial, Probation and Parole Supervision Week.
In addition to supervising high, medium and low-risk criminal offenders, Brown works with them to help change their behavior patterns.
He regularly meets with offenders at his downtown Portland office or at their homes -- sometimes scheduled, sometimes just dropping in. He assesses his clients’ risk of reoffending and creates customized case plans to address and help change criminal behavior. He also works to develop relationships with people involved in the justice system and connect them to services such as drug and alcohol treatment, mentoring and therapy.
“The job is a mix of law enforcement and social work,” says Brown.
“Each person’s needs are different,” he continues. “It could be 70 percent social work and 30 percent law enforcement/supervision work for one person, or 80 percent law enforcement/supervision and 20 percent social work [for another].”
“Our staff, many on a daily basis, are confronted with challenging situations that can escalate quickly,” says Scott Taylor director of Multnomah County’s Department of Community Justice, which supervises more than 13,000 adult probationers and parolees, processes an estimated 32,000 cases in its recognizance unit, and serves more than 700 youths and their families in diversion and through informal and formal supervision.
“They make split second decision that rely on their instincts, training and experience with that person and gauge situations and determine what is best,” Taylor says. “One of the biggest issues is no one knows what we do.”
But Taylor says he’s glad more people are learning about the importance of corrections professionals.
Last month, county parole and probation officers were instrumental in a headline-making international drug sales investigation on the darknet. County corrections technicians and parole and probation officers quickly notified authorities when an offender cut off his electronic monitoring device earlier this month, helping lead to his capture just two days later.
Behind the scenes, the stories of youth affected by the Community Healing Initiative, a partnership between the County’s Juvenile Services Division, Latino Network, and Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center (POIC), are circulating. The program provides supervision, intervention and prevention strategies for youth of color and their families, specifically youth likely to be involved in violent activities and gun violence. The goal is to intervene early and provide youth and families with the resources they need to prevent further involvement in the criminal justice system.
And the county’s Justice Reinvestment Program, is part of nationwide effort to reduce reliance on costly prisons by investing in data-driven, fiscally responsible policies and practices to reduce crime. The program hinges on the customized case plans implemented by parole and probation officers.
Taylor touts the innovative programs and the partnerships that allow different perspectives to shape the way parole and probationers are served.
The proof is in the stories of the lives of both victims and individuals involved in the justice system Taylor says.
“I have never received so many thank you notes from relatives of people who we worked with or calls from the community that come into the director’s office on changes that have been made,” says Taylor.
This week, along with the national effort to recognize PPOs, Multnomah County will proclaim Pretrial, Probation and Parole Supervision Week, an annual celebration. This year’s theme is Clients, Communities, Employees: Empowerment through Partnerships.
“I think Multnomah County really exemplifies these efforts,” Taylor says. “We see it in the people we serve, we see in the hard work that our workforce pulls off every single day and the collaborative partnerships we’ve formed. It’s unique.”
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Brown hears encouraging words whenever he’s out in the community. It’s not uncommon to receive a thank you from a passerby while making field visits on his Southwest Portland beat.
He actively supervises about 50 clients. His unit is one of the busiest in the County.
“I’m laying the groundwork just by talking to them [probationers/parolees],” explains Brown. “I have an impact on their lives in some way.”
Brown also believes his presence in the community provides a sense of encouragement for those who may one day want to serve as a parole or probation officer, too.
“There aren’t a lot of black POs or a lot of people in the black community who have positive encounters with law enforcement. So when they see me or my partner, They say ‘Oh you’re a PO. It’s good to see people on the force who are black.’ There are people who come up and just want to talk to us. We talk and chat about how we can stop recidivism.”
"PO’s can turn people away from the field or encourage people to become a part of it. We want people to say: I’m a good person. I can be helpful. I want to work in my community and I want to be that officer.”
He pauses while reflecting on his work - “You never know how you might make a difference.”
Watch a video of Behind the Scenes with Multnomah County’s Gang Unit