|
From Lecture Hall to Justice Hall: Tapping Campus Talent for Probation and Parole
SESSION INFO
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
9:15 AM - 10:45 AM
Session Type: Workshop
The promise of a college-workforce pipeline offers a vital approach for building strategies to fill probation and parole staffing shortfalls, with vacancy rates close to 20% across the country. Reasons for high vacancy rates include low pay, poor work/life balance, and an aging population with turnover rates close to 30%. Efforts to hire new staff largely rely on traditional methods, including job postings, working with consultants, and social media, but often overlook the potential of university engagement. This session, hosted by the National Association of Probation Executives and John Jay College, will discuss promising strategies for agency-university partnerships to address staff shortages. Strategies include internships and experiential learning opportunities, executive graduate programs, and researcher-practitioner partnerships Collectively, these strategies are designed to stimulate interest in community corrections employment and advancement by reducing the gap between the classroom and workforce. Strategies for successful collaborations will be discussed.
|
|
|
SESSION PRESENTERS
Heath Grant
Associate Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Dr. Grant was the Director of Research of the Police Executive Research Forum. He has also developed and delivered training and technical assistance programs to many prevention programs and criminal justice agencies internationally that have reached many thousands throughout the world. He is an expert in policing, crime prevention and resiliency, the correlation between law and society and has published a number of books, training manuals and articles on these subjects. He is the author of Evidence-based Policing, 2024, Building a Culture of Lawfulness, 2006 and Law Enforcement in the Twenty-first Century, 2007 amongst others.
Deborah Koetzle
Professor and Corrections Lab Director, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Debi Koetzle, PhD, is Professor of Criminal Justice and Director of the Corrections Lab at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her research interests center around effective correctional interventions in institutional and community settings, with a focus on problem-solving courts, organizational culture, program evaluation, and international correctional policies and practices.
Ray Wahl
Founder, Justus Consultants
Ray Wahl is a partner with JustUs Consulting Consortium. After working 45 years in the Community Corrections field he retired in 2019. He began his career in community corrections as a probation and parole officer for Utah Adult Probation and Parole. He held several management positions in that organization and in 1989 was appointed Director; one of the few career service employees to serve in that position. In 1998,, he began working for the Utah Courts as the Juvenile Court Administrator where he oversaw both court and probation activities. He was appointed Deputy Court Administrator in 2012 and served in that position until his retirement. He served as President of the American Probation and Parole Association from 1999 to 2001 and has been a member of APPA since 1983.He has received a number of awards including the Walter Dunbar Award , the Probation Executive of the Year and the Russell VanVleet Award from the Utah Criminal Justice Center. He has done international consulting in Trinidad and Tobago, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Colombia. He serves as a volunteer in 2nd District Court as a Court Appointed Special Advocate and is a member of the Guardian Ad Litem Oversight panel.
Valerie West
Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Valerie West, PhD, is Professor of Criminal Justice and Director of the MA in Criminal Justice Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
|
|
|
|
|
|