July 18-24 is Pretrial, Probation and Parole Supervision Week, and to celebrate we will be highlighting exceptional parole agents or offices in the DOC. Check back each day for a new feature celebrating the excellent parole staff in Pennsylvania.
To close out the week, the DOC is highlighting our clerical personnel, parole staff technicians, parole communications operators, administrative assistants and parole managers throughout Pennsylvania.
Field clerical staff have overcome countless obstacles this past year having to work with minimal staffing levels in offices, learning telework processes and implementing new technology. Parole Field Services relies heavily on the support of clerical staff in the field and at Central Office to carry out day-to-day essential functions. The work they do is imperative to operations.
Together with a group of dedicated regional administrative assistants, stock room clerk Faith Hursh and her supervisor, Ronald Morrison, worked tirelessly to ensure field staff had everything they needed to be safe. Dave Meas, the Central Region administrative assistant, stepped in to help Harrisburg District clerical staff with managing the process to open new cases.
The clerical staff, parole managers and parole staff technicians of the Interstate Services Division met every challenge during the pandemic, including the adjustment to telework. Specifically, technicians Holly Kelly and Madeline Masters, from the Interstate Supervision and Retake Unit, exemplified dedication and perseverance during the last year. Obstacles associated with the movement of inmates were magnified during the pandemic, but they ensured extraditions and retakes were successful. This was no small task with jails releasing inmates with little notice, transport vendors shutting down and reentrants testing positive at the last minute.
Parole Services Division staff worked full-time on-site throughout the pandemic managing warrants and extraditions. The division was in the process of being fully implemented prior to the pandemic; and they worked hard to overcome the unique challenges associated with starting a new division during a global health emergency.
The Probation Services Division was met with the challenges of processing of paperwork from counties, keeping the county probation departments in the "loop" regarding changes and providing outreach and support as needed.
Operation Management Center operators are always appreciated, but they deserve special recognition for working onsite during the pandemic, along with most employees in the field. Their dedication to their mission is appreciated.
There are so many moving to probation and parole superivsion: processing the paperwork, ordering the supplies, opening mail, supervising reentrants or even managing a unit/district/division. Parole staff cannot carry out their mission without the support of their teams. Together, they are dedicated to a single mission: to successfully reintegrate reentrants into the community while maintaining public safety.