By SHERRY HALBROOK, Photos by Deborah A. Miles
Approximately 200 PEF members at the state Division of Parole converged on Albany from throughout the state in early January to protest working conditions for parole officers that jeopardize the public safety — high caseloads, repetitious paperwork and burdensome work rules.
A sharp, cold wind could not discourage the determined officers from making Central Avenue ring with the sounds of their chants, bullhorns, whistles and clackers as they marched and rallied in front of the state Division of Parole main office.
LET US DO OUR JOBS — Hundreds of PEF members at the state Division of Parole protest in front of the agency’s central offices in January. Division 236 Council Leader Barry Fishbein is interviewed by
RNN-TV
“Protecting the public safety is the state Division of Parole’s most important mission and it is our top priority as parole officers,” said PEF Executive Board Member, and Assistant Council Leader Richard Mata, a parole officer in Buffalo. “But the division is making it very hard for us to give parolees the level of supervision they should have.
“We are being required to spend far too much time filling out repetitious reports and organizing paperwork in case files, instead of checking up on parolees to make sure they are following the rules of their paroles, obeying the law and making a good transition back into their communities.”
Parole officer Barry Fishbein of Newburgh, council leader of PEF Division 236, said many officers are supervising more than 60 parolees, but the state uses “fuzzy math” to make their official caseloads appear much lower. The Division of Parole’s unwillingness to approve overtime and its unrealistic requirement that officers return to their offices at the end of every workday to file paperwork, he said, are creating a time crunch that leaves officers too little time to fulfill their most important responsibility — keeping parolees on the straight and narrow path and the public safe.
Division 236 stewards Ismael Cruz and Bill Fagg are interviewed by WROW radio. The officers are protesting working conditions that jeopardize public safety.
The Division of Parole’s emphasis on administrative work has become so strong that one bureau in Manhattan stopped doing any parolee supervision out of the office for several weeks to focus entirely on organizing paperwork in case folders.
PEF has filed grievances and brought the issues to the statewide labor-management committee. The officers also told news reporters at the rally and in their communities that the new emphasis on paper-pushing is endangering the security of all New Yorkers.
“We’ll take this to the public and to the Legislature,” vowed parole officer Michael Murphy of the Bronx. “And we won’t stop until they let us get back to doing our jobs.”
Executive
Board Member Rich Mata leads the march.
The
Communicator May 2005
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