The Wabash County probation office has the least amount of staff and operates in an extremely cramped office at the courthouse…and that needs to change. That was the message conveyed to county commissioners at their recent meeting as Chief Probation Officer Ryan Ruble spelled out the hardships Wabash County probation officer Judy Lewis works.
According to Ruble, the probation office is required to keep records for a minimum of 5 years causing a large amount of files to pile up in Lewis’s small office. In addition, filing cabinets with confidential probation records are being stored in a nearby conference room potentially compromising the privacy of individuals in the information.
Ruble said the statewide mandate to bring the justice system to community corrections means more people on probation and an even larger burden on Lewis’s office in terms of workload and space.
The Wabash County probation office is currently the only office in Ruble’s jurisdiction that doesn’t employ at least an administrative assistant. For example, the probation office in Edwards County is currently dealing with 90 cases and has two people on staff; in White County, a staff of 4 handles 233 cases while Wabash County has just Lewis on staff working 124 cases by herself.
Another offshoot of the lack of staff is that Ruble said those charged with a misdemeanor in Wabash County aren’t put on probation because of the lack of staff to supervise them….
Ruble also said Lewis makes very few home visits which he said were critical in the new era of community corrections.
Following Ruble’s presentation, county commissioners took no action on expanding the staff or space in the probation office saying they would look into the issue further and see what the county’s finances were able to allow.