PROCLAMATION

July 15 through 21 has been declared Probation, Parole, and Community Supervision Week. The Nicollet County Board passed a resolution designating this special week in Nicollet County. A little bit of background on probation tells us that probation is an essential part of the criminal justice system. Probation officers are responsible for supervising adult and juvenile offenders in the community. Probation officers promote prevention, intervention, and advocacy while they provide services, support and protection for victims.

Steve Kley of the Nicollet County Probation Department shared with the County Board that county staff is supervising about 800 offenders. There are 700 adults and 119 juvenile offenders in the system at this time. And this does not include the adult felons who are supervised by the Minnesota Department of Corrections. The total number of people in Nicollet County being supervised by someone in the probation business is around 1000 people. Since our population is just under 30,000 people that means one of every thirty people is being supervised. end