News  MPS leads the nation with lowest incarceration rate

Boston, MA — The Council for State Government (CSG) Justice Center and the Pew Foundation cited the Massachusetts Probation Service as having the lowest incarceration rate of probationers stemming from probation violations of any state in the nation.

According to a CSG report, only one percent of state prison inmates in the Commonwealth are incarcerated for violating probation. Across the nation, there are 280,000 people in prison for supervision violations--probation and parole-- on any given day, based on the report.

Probation Commissioner Edward J. Dolan attributes the success to the agency's use of the risk/need assessment tool--Ohio Risk Assessment System (ORAS)--and Probation Officers' efforts to mitigate those risks as well as the change in the way Probation handles violations.

"We file a fair number of violation reports. However, those violation reports are really a way to put the individual back in front of a judge maybe to change the conditions, not necessarily to send people to prison," Dolan said.

Juvenile Probation has experienced a 53 percent reduction in violations as a result of the implementation of an administrative hearing process, sanctions, and a rewards process where juveniles receive small incentives such as mini speakers, according to John Millett, Juvenile Court Probation Statewide Supervisor.