Riverside County Adult Probation Department

The highest pay, including benefits, for a mid-level probation officer in Riverside County is $51,882.00. Pay for nearby counties of Orange, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles (all within commuting distance) averages $59,181.00. Riverside County is 14% lower. Competition with the surrounding counties pay and benefit packages makes it more difficult for the Probation Department to recruit new probation officers.

Senior probation clerical personnel are transferring to the court system and other agencies whose salaries are approximately $600.00 more per month.

The Probation Department’s Investigative Unit prepares presentencing reports, using their best judgment about public safety, and information regarding the offender’s background, for the court’s use in sentencing. Their case load is not a factor in preparing the presentencing report so they have no control over the total number of cases they are required to handle.

The court determines the length of probation. The minimum sentence is 3 2 years and the maximum is 5 years. Requests for changes in the length of probation after sentencing requires that a new petition be filed with the court. This is rarely, if ever, done since the District Attorney normally opposes reductions to the length of the sentence.

Probation assigns a level of supervision to each case based upon public safety, the probationer’s background, and the department’s resources. As the caseloads increase, many offenders are assigned or downgraded to lower levels of supervision than the best interests and safety of our community requires. Consequently, many cases that are “banked” (not seen or rarely seen at all) in Level III often include those convicted of the following: battery with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, child molestation, manufacturing drugs, selling and/or possessing deadly weapons, sexual battery, inflicting corporal injury on spouse, unlawful sex with a minor, lewd and lascivious act with a child, and rape by force and fear.

The department, with it’s current shortage of probation officers, constantly strives, but never quite achieves the ideal ratio of one probation officer for 50 offenders under Level I supervision, or one probation officer for 100 offenders under Level II supervision. In budgeting for Fiscal Year 2000- 2001, management requested ten additional probation officers to meet the increased number of probationers. This request was denied.

The vast majority of adults on probation have been abusers of alcohol and drugs. The Adult Felon Drug Court system in Riverside that incorporates drug/alcohol treatment has a success rate of 72%. These drug courts are currently at maximum capacity.