Council hears Department of Probation staff concerns as leaders outline reforms and staffing plans

City Council members pressed Department of Probation leaders on a series of changes that staff and outside partners say have hollowed out the agency: rising vacancies, leadership turnover, program reductions and a more enforcement-oriented posture. Commissioner Juanita Holmes defended reforms, cited new training and data systems and said the department is increasing hiring and program evaluation.

Holmes opened the oversight hearing by describing DOP as “one of the largest alternatives to incarceration in the country,” saying it has “serviced over 33,000 cases, resulting in the supervision of over 16,000 clients year to date.” She outlined a reform agenda that emphasized housing, education, employment and mental health and said the department has launched new training and technology intended to measure outcomes.

Council members and outside witnesses, including legal-service providers and the probation officers' union, disputed the administration’s characterization of progress. Dalvinique Powell, president of the United Probation Officers Association (UPOA), told the committee the agency “is in crisis” and said the union has seen unusually high attrition and stalled hiring. Powell said command-discipline procedures and frequent suspensions without pay have eroded morale.

Vacancies and hiring: Members repeatedly raised the department's vacancy rates and hiring cadence. Council members cited a 23% vacancy rate in probation services (about 244 vacancies) and asked when the next civil-service class will graduate; Holmes said her next training/academy run is scheduled after the next civil-service exam and said the bureau is preparing to expand the academy and its instructors so larger classes can graduate. Holmes said the department has a pool of about 375 prospective candidates and increased training from three to five months while doubling academy instructors from five to 10 to support larger cohorts.

Caseloads and workload structure: The committee heard competing assessments about caseload pressure. Commissioner Holmes and staff said the citywide average caseload is about 48 cases per officer and that the department has sought to equalize assignments. Holmes said she adopted a mixed-case strategy — giving officers a range of high-, medium- and low-risk cases rather than concentrating high-risk caseloads with a few specialists — and that she instituted new supervisor and in-service training and a template to prioritize the most at-risk clients. Council members and some staff argued that officers are nonetheless overloaded in some boroughs and that high-risk cases still demand more time. The department said the Queens gun branch remains an intentional specialty with higher numbers.

Metrics, recidivism and technical violations: Holmes and staff said they have rebuilt DOP’s data and reporting systems and are reporting a truer recidivism metric. Juvenile recidivism was reported at 4.2% for June (down from 5.1% in May) and a six‑month juvenile average of about 4.8%. The department also reported adult monthly rearrest percentages trending down from 4.1% in January to 3.1% most recently. On technical violations, staff told the committee that monthly totals have fallen over the last year: one example the department cited compared 35 technical violations in May of the prior year to 9 in May of the current year.

Program changes and community partnerships: The hearing featured repeated concerns from providers and defense advocates about program cuts. Providers and defense counsel said a city mentoring program, Next Steps, and other locally run alternatives were ended or curtailed in 2023 with limited notice to vendors; advocates said sudden program cancellations undermined continuity of services to young people and may have contributed to increased detention. Commissioner Holmes said the department has initiated new training and is expanding vocational programs (CDL, EMT, culinary and barbering) and that a behavioral health team for juveniles will begin in the fall with a planned initial capacity of roughly 100 slots.

CLOs, court operations and family court: Multiple witnesses told the committee that removing court liaison officers (CLOs) from courthouse parts created friction. Providers and defense attorneys said CLOs had served as immediate liaisons that walked youth and families to probation, set up interviews, and raised engagement; without them, advocates said families often wait longer and some probation interviews are missed. Holmes said the department has asked courts to use digital repositories already in place and that borough directors and on-call staff can fill immediate needs, but council members and providers said the transition produced real disruptions in some parts of the city.

Arming probation officers and uniforms: Committee members asked about a policy change requiring probation officers to qualify with firearms and carry them in some circumstances. Holmes said peace officers must qualify with firearms and that the administration mandated agency-wide carry as a rule-of-thumb to improve officer safety when staff enter high-violence neighborhoods; she said the agency provides lockers and storage for firearms while staff are in offices. Members asked Holmes for empirical evidence tying firearms policy changes to staff safety and requested the data and policy documents underlying the change; Holmes said she relied on long experience in high-crime neighborhoods and said operational decisions were made to protect staff.

Discipline and command-discipline procedures: Union leaders and committee members raised concerns about suspensions without pay and opaque discipline pathways. Holmes said the agency has added investigators and counsel and proposed a command-discipline policy intended to allow supervisors to address lower-level infractions locally rather than sending everything to the general counsel, but the policy has not been implemented because the union has not agreed to it. The committee requested written benchmarks for discipline and said it expects standardized procedures that preserve due process while enabling consistent accountability.

Next steps: Council members asked for a written reconciliation of DOP’s internal metrics and the Mayor’s Management Report methodology to ensure both the council and the department are ‘‘looking at the same numbers.’’ Members requested documentation on case-assignment formulae (how high-, medium- and low-risk cases are weighted), the department’s dashboard methodology, a breakdown of program slots and employment outcomes for vocational programs, and the data supporting changes in firearms policy. Commissioner Holmes agreed to supply the requested materials and a dashboard presentation to the council.

Why it matters: The Department of Probation is a major alternative-to-incarceration agency. Council members and outside witnesses framed the hearing as a crossroads: whether DOP will emphasize rehabilitation, services and diversion or increasingly rely on enforcement and uniformed visibility. Union leaders said pay, discipline and retention must be addressed; providers said program continuity and court-based engagement are critical to keep young people and adults out of custody; the commissioner said investment in training, data, and vocational opportunities is underway.

The committee said it will hold follow-up oversight sessions and requested written materials and data from DOP to substantiate performance claims and explain recent operational changes.