The Impact of Probation and Parole Populations on Arrests in Four California Cities

This study’s purpose was to “determine the extent to which people on probation and parole contribute to the demands on the resources of local law enforcement, and to identify what opportunities exist to use data to target their limited resources more effectively” (p. 3). Some of the findings show that: only one in five arrests are people on probation or parole; for these individuals one in six arrests were for violent crime, one in three for drug crime; and an assessment of a parolee for risk of rearrest was effective, while that for probation’s was not. Two of the recommendations made in this report are: promote the use of a validated risk assessment instrument; and provide evidence-based practices for those people at high risk for re-offending.