Parole agent career path: education, motivations, and daily work

Parole Agent

Interview with Parole Agent

Where did you go to school and what was your major?

I have a B.S. In criminal justice. That's pretty typical -- you pretty much have to have a degree from a college in something like criminal justice, although there are a couple of agents with other degrees, like one in psychology. If you want to move up, at some point you should get a master's degree in criminal justice or major in something like organizational science. I went to Cal State LA. They have a good program

How did you choose this field?

That's funny because it wasn't something that I ever really intended to go into. I thought about being a cop when I was a kid three of my uncles are cops. And -- I probably shouldn't say this -- but they would let me see their guns, turn on the siren in the car, walk around pretending to be a cop. I thought that it was all very cool, very grown-up. But they also talked about how they felt that what they did didn't matter because the people they arrested kept getting released and then they had to arrest them all over again. So I figured that maybe what was needed was someone who could fix that.

5. Can you give a description of typical day?

Well, like I said, I spend a lot of time in my car. I spend most of my time visiting my parolees wherever they live. They also come in to see me at my office, partly because they have to come in to do drug tests. But I've always found that I can learn a lot more about them by visiting them at home. I also search their homes for things they shouldn't have, like weapons.

6. Can you describe a specific client?

One guy, he'd been on parole for five years. The day before he was supposed to get off, I went by for a visit and found him sitting on his front porch cleaning his gun collection. If he'd waited one more day, he'd have been fine. Because he didn't, he went back to jail.

7. What has surprised you?

I hate to say it, but I'm surprised almost every day by basically how stupid people can be. They get out and go back to doing whatever got them into prison.

8. What kind of work might you have done instead?

I don't really know. I guess that I still want to try to fix the system that keeps men just recycling in and out of prison. This isn't that job. I really think that I do my job well, but the system isn't designed to keep people from reoffending. So I guess, I don't know, maybe a psychologist or something like that. To try to figure out what makes people act the way they do.

9. What advice do you have for someone entering the field?

Wow. That's a big question. I guess that overall I would encourage people to enter the field. it's got a lot of job security and has good benefits, and that's something that students don't necessarily think about when they're just starting off, but those things really do matter as you get older.

And I do find the work rewarding, despite what I just said. It can be frustrating at times. It is frustrating a lot of the time. But then there are guys who are genuinely trying to get their lives in order. And sometimes you're just the person who can help them get back on the right road. That feels great.

10. What makes a good parole agent?

This might sound strange, but I think that the most important quality for a good agent is being organized. I have being 40 and 50 offenders on my list all the time. And they each have different conditions they have to meet. I have to keep track of all of that, and I have to know each one well enough so that when they come to me and ask for an exception -- maybe to travel outside of the county to go to a family event -- I have to be able to know everything about their case to know if that's okay.

Also, you have to be able to spot bullshit. A lot of the guys, they're already trying to run some scam.

11. How do you keep current?

My department is really good about bringing people in to give seminars about topics in the field. We can go to workshops too, although right now that's being cut because of the budget. And I actually learn a lot from other agents. I try to keep up on reading -- journals, and bulletins from the FBI. I have also taken a few psychology classes at the community college here. I get my tuition paid for and I get time off to do that. That's a great deal.

12. What are some of the future trends in the field?

That's really hard to say because how the department is run is affected a lot by politics. When people want to get tough on crime, there are new laws and parole has to be tougher on everyone. When a different group gets voted in, all of the rules change. I don't think that cycle will change.

I guess one thing I think might change -- that I think should change -- is that there is a shift right now toward offering more counseling to parolees. So I'd like to know more about therapy, what works, how I can support it. And how offenders can try to game the system there too.

This California parole agent is actually my brother-in-law.