Ted Poe: “On this legislation, I think it is important that individuals understand probation officers. I worked at the courthouse…”

“On this legislation, I think it is important that individuals understand probation officers. I worked at the courthouse in Houston, Texas, as a prosecutor and then as a criminal court judge for 22 years. I had probation officers report to me. That was our system. I knew a lot of probation officers, Federal and State. I think our society does not understand how important their job is. A person comes to court charged with a crime, and the judge decides to release that person on supervised probation. The person goes back out into the community and is supposed to follow a bunch of rules or the probation could be revoked. Probation officers not only have probationers come to their office to report, but probation officers go out there where these probationers are--in their homes and where they are working--and check up on them, trying to make sure they toe the line. It is a very, very dangerous job, in my opinion. Many of these probation officers work alone, just because of budget problems. So they will go out there, and they will talk to some probationer about their probation and try to encourage them to, for example, get a job. That is what you are supposed to do when you are on probation. And they encounter other people--sometimes family members, sometimes friends, sometimes roommates, business associates--and they start yelling and screaming at the probation officer. Sometimes they commit a crime against the probation officer.…”