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82 Fed. Probation 13 (2018)
Probation Officer as a Coach: Building a New Professional Identity

handle is hein.journals/fedpro82 and id is 15 raw text is: June 2018 13 Brian K. Lovins Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department Francis T Cullen University of Cincinnati Edward J. Latessa University of Cincinnati Cheryl Lero Jonson Xavier University ALTHOUGH MASS IMPRISONMENT has justifiably received great attention (e.g., Clear & Frost, 2014; Pratt, 2009), the simul- taneous rise of mass probation in the United States has often escaped systematic com- mentary and widespread awareness (Phelps, 2017). The correctional reality is that on any given day in the nation, 1 in 66 adult residents are on probation, which translates to nearly 3.8 million offenders. When parolees are added to this equation, the population under community supervision rises to more than 4.6 million-or 1 in every 53 adults (Kaeble & Bonczar, 2016). A continuing policy and practice concern is what role probation (and parole) officers should play in the lives of this substantial slice of the American citizenry. The rapid and intractable growth of community supervision populations in a decades-long punitive era undermined the traditional rehabilitative ideal and ushered in competing visions of what constituted appro- priate supervision (Phelps, in press; Simon, 1993). Although allegiance to human service supervision never vanished, many jurisdic- tions deemphasized behavior change through treatment in favor of risk management through a range of control- or deterrence-oriented approaches. These included the trumpeting of such practices as intensive supervision, drug testing, electronic monitoring, and, more recently, swift-certain-fair probation. With only occasional exceptions, these practices have proven to be ineffective or, at best, incon- sistently and modestly successful (Cullen & Jonson, 2017; Cullen, Pratt, Turanovic, & Butler, in press; Petersilia & Turner, 1993; Schaefer, Cullen, & Eck, 2016). Notably, American corrections is emerg- ing from this mean season (Petersilia & Cullen, 2015). In many jurisdictions, there is a renewed recognition that, while risk man- agement to protect public safety remains a priority, officers must also use their skills to effect behavior change in their supervisees. Although not mountainous, research is accu- mulating showing how this goal might be accomplished by building quality relationships with offenders, possessing treatment skills, and using RNR principles to guide the content of office visits with offenders (Bonta, Bourgon, Rugge, Scott, Yessine, Gutierrez, & Li, 2011; Chadwick, DeWolf & Serin, 2015; Cullen, Jonson, & Mears, 2017; Raynor, Ugwudike, & Vanstone, 2014; Robinson, Lowenkamp, Holsinger, VanBenshoten, Alexander, & Oleson, 2012; Skeem, Louden, Polaschek, & Camp, 2007; Smith, Schweitzer, Labrecque, & Latessa, 2012). These advances in evidence-based super- vision practices certainly are welcomed but something more is needed. Officers need to have a conception of their role that allows them to use this knowledge. In traditional discourse, role choices have often been posed in dichotomous terms-whether officers were going to emphasize treatment or control. We suggest, however, that it may be more useful to move beyond these stale categories. Instead, we propose that probation (and parole) offi- cers might benefit from a different concept of who they are and what they do: probation officer as a coach. Social psychologists illuminate how all of us have ideas about who we are and what our lives are about (McAdams, 2001; see also Maruna, 2001). They use the concept of narrative identity to capture the story we tell about our- selves. Such an identity is important because it organizes our action, motivates our choices, and provides meaning to our lives. In the world of sports, the identity as a coach carries with it status, expertise, obligation, purpose, and accountability. Similarly, having probation officers build an identity as a coach has the potential to open up new ways of envisioning their role and how they can be effective. Our argument is developed in three sec- tions. First, we propose that too often the current probation officer role is best con- ceptualized as being a referee. We use the probation officer-as-referee as a way of show- ing what, in contrast, a coach's role would June 2018 13

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