Napa County Probation Department Receives National Award

The Napa County Probation Department was awarded the American Probation and Parole Association’s President’s Award at the Association’s Annual Training Institute in New Orleans. The award was given during the Institute on August 4, 2014. Chief Probation Officer Mary Butler and Chief Deputy Amanda Gibbs were on hand to accept the award.

The American Probation and Parole Association is an international association composed of members actively involved in pretrial, probation and parole in both adult and juvenile services. All levels of government including federal, state, local and tribal agencies are among the members. One of the awards given by the Association is the President’s Award. This award was first given in 1994 and is selected by the current President of the American Probation and Parole Association.

The President’s Award recognizes exemplary community corrections programs which serve to advance the knowledge, effectiveness and integrity of the system. The award recognizes visionary organizations that have exemplified the management and innovations necessary to lead community corrections into the next decade. “I am honored to have the Napa County Probation Department awarded the APPA Presidents Award. The Department has been on a journey to assure community safety and provide rehabilitative services to adult and juvenile offenders using research based approaches. Each staff member has worked hard to be a part of this team and it is because of them that our Department was able to make the changes to really help offenders and see success with their ability to get out of the criminal justice system,” said Mary Butler, Chief Probation Officer.

Napa County was nominated based on the five criteria for the award. Those criteria include: evidence of the program’s contributions to the broad field of community corrections; clear correlation between the goals of the program and their impacts; the program’s replicability and positive community impact; clear evidence of the supportive nature of its environment; and qualitative evaluation.

The Probation Department has been engaged in the implementation of evidence based practices since 2005. This has resulted in a number of changes within the Department designed to better serve the criminal justice population through accountability and rehabilitation.

A pretrial program was implemented to assist the jail with overcrowding and yet assure that those awaiting court appeared for court appearances and did not commit any new offenses. The total success of the program in the first year was over 90%.

The Department also implemented a rewards and sanctions grid to deal with the violations of probation. Utilizing this grid the Department implemented the element within evidence based practices of swift and certain sanctions to tie the behavior to the consequence. Research shows the closer together this occurs, the more impact it has on changing behavior. The changed behavior is shared by a participant in the program stating, “I really and truly am a different person than I was two and half years ago…I know that no matter how big or small my issues are I can always go down to BI or probation and there will be someone there who will take the time to talk to me.”

The Juvenile Division the Department has reduced the average daily number in youth in the hall from a high of 42 youth in 2009 to 25 in 2012. This is a result of a new program, an evening reporting center where youth are provided services during the hours that crime usually occurs. Additionally, the number of youth on probation has been reduced by 49% in three years.

In regard to the dedication of the Probation staff, even an earthquake can’t slow down the Napa County Probation Department. The Adult Probation office was damaged in the August 24 earthquake, and staff members are displaced for the next few months.

On August 25, the Department opened with a table outside the office ready to meet with probationers who were coming for prescheduled appointments or were referred from the court. Additionally, the Juvenile Department opened their doors to the 40 staff members who needed a space. This type of teamwork, dedication and responsiveness to the needs of the community exemplify the worthiness of the Probation Department to receive this prestigious award.

For more information contact Mary Butler, Chief Probation Officer at (707) 259-8115.

--Information provided by County of Napa

--Photo Credit: Juvenile Justice Hall, County of Napa