hi there today we have Wendy Legee and I
want to give a quick bio biography for
Wendy Wendy got her she won't say
exactly when but she got her Bachelors
of Arts in Corrections from Western
Oregon University and after college she
started working as a community work crew
supervisor with Marion County Adult
Community Corrections following that she
moved into the position of parole and
probation officer with the state of
Oregon and from there she's gone federal
as a U.S. Probation Officer for the
District of Oregon
she started in that position in 1993 and
since moving into the federal system
she's held a number of positions doing
things like writing pre-sentence reports
Supervision Officer, Drug and
Alcohol Treatment Specialist, and a
Mental Health Specialist with the the
unit so I want to welcome you Wendy and
why don't we go ahead and get started I
wanted to start off today just asking a
little bit about your current position
and duties so what do you do okay
well I'm a manager presently with the
u.s. probation office in the District of
Oregon I've been doing that for about
eight years but I think I'm going to
talk a little bit about kind of what it
is an entry-level u.s. probation
officers do because I think a lot of the
students out there listening to the
webinar probably interested in that for
the most part and this is not specific
to the District of Oregon either it's
probably fairly common around the
country most entry-level officers will
either be assigned as a pre-sentence
investigator or a pre-sentence writer or
a supervision officer they share a lot
of similar responsibilities and yet have
a lot of different responsibilities
pre-sentence writers for the most part
part obviously right pre-sentence
reports and essentially they collect
data about an offender who has either
pled guilty or been found guilty in
federal court of a crime and that
information assists the court in
essentially deciding upon a sentence for
the particular defendant so we go into
the writer investigates criminal history
the instant offense personal history
like employment family data education
levels there's a military background and
compiles all of this data together and
then incorporates the federal sentencing
guidelines and provides a pretty
in-depth picture of the defendant before
the judge the day of sentencing
following sentencing the offenders come
out to the community and are supervised
by our supervision officers and they of
course monitor the offender within the
community to make sure they comply with
conditions and the officer assess risks
and makes referrals and those kinds of
things so that's essentially what the
pre-sentence writers and supervision
officers do entry-level within the US
district courts as a probation officer
okay tell me a little bit about how you
got into this field and why why you're
doing this work well I fell into this
field actually a little bit by accident
I wanted to be a teacher and I think
that one of the characteristics I think
of a good probation officer is this is
similar to some of the characteristics
of a good teacher and that is that you
want to help people to to really reach
their full potential so I wanted to look
at that part of a potential career being
able to assist folks with with being as
best they can and I happen to take a
criminal justice class as an elective
and just really took a keen interest in
it and changed my major halfway through
college so I also as I learned
little more about community-based
Corrections I really liked the the
variety that came with being a probation
officer you are an investigator you're
also a social worker you're a law
enforcement officer so you do so many
different things as a probation officer
which essentially meant that it was
never a dull moment I was going to be
doing something different and new
essentially every day because people are
different and and so that meant that my
day was probably going to be changing
almost hourly so I kind of enjoyed
that I'd like to do something a little
different also an internship really
pushed me in the direction of probation
I was thinking you know maybe law
enforcement possibly even Corrections
was that within a facility but after
doing an internship and really working
with the offenders and the different
populations of offenders in the field
that pretty much persuaded me that
probation work was was a better fit for
me so I started to look for positions
after I had graduated wherein I was
getting that exposure and that
experience working with people and sure
enough was hired on as a state probation
officer and it wasn't even until then
that I learned of the existence of the
u.s. probation office and and knew the
level of professionalism that came with
working in the federal system and
ultimately applied for and kind of
secured a position here so that's kind
of how I fell into this the current
position that I have now with the u.s.
probation office so okay I wonder if you
can tell me about you know a typical day
for a probation officer in your agency what would he or she be doing in
this position well like I said it it's a
plethora of duties and responsibilities
and of course if one given officer can
do a lot of things in a day first and
foremost we talked to a lot of people so
we conduct interviews
with offenders with offender
family members we have a lot of
communications with attorneys with the
judge with law enforcement agents US
Attorney's office so we do a lot of
interviews and have a lot of
conversations in the course of a day
with different folks we spend a lot of
time running background investigations
even not only as a pre-sentence writer
but even as a supervision officer with
associates to make sure that these
associates don't have records and so
we're constantly conducting background
investigations we do a lot of data
analysis especially the writers with
respect to federal sentencing guidelines
so there are computations that that with
the guidelines that the officers need to
do and that would even apply to
supervision officers when violations
occur and someone is looking at a
potential revocation we have to also be
sensitive to the fact that there are
federal sentencing guidelines with those
cases as well we write a lot and I'm
sure that the students out there
probably are well aware that probation
officers prepare many reports violation
report status reports sometimes they go
to our court sometimes they go to the
u.s. Parole Commission other probation
offices we keep chronological entries or notes
essentially on any contacts related to
an offender on supervision so there's a
lot of writing that's involved and we
also testify quite a bit so we're in
court the writers for sentencing
hearings and supervision officers for
either status hearings or violation
hearings so we're in court a lot and we
also meet with some of the judges
independently they'll want to the
officers will want to come back they'll
want the officers to come back and staff
cases prior to a hearing and
occasionally that will happen we make a
lot of referrals for services for
offenders so we will probably have a lot
of contacts with treatment providers
with programs out there that provide job
readiness or even employment services to
offenders so we make all kinds of social
service referrals and that's based on
the needs of the offender and then of
course and there's a lot of
collaboration so there again there's
communication with those people that are
working with the offenders and hence
also working with us to make sure that
that they are complying with conditions
and are able to become a little more
productive members of the community so
there's a lot of collaboration between
people also so a lot of talking and a
lot of writing in the course of a day
well that leads us nicely into the next
question that I have and what are some
of the skill sets and knowledge that you
think that you know entry-level
employees need to have in order to do
well in this field definitely I would
suggest that students have very
good writing and oral skills like I said
communication is a big part of what the
the officers do either on a supervision
officer or a pre-sentence writer some of
the other skills multitasking
obviously like I said during the course
of a day you'll point you can find
yourself doing many different things so
you have to be good with multitasking
and prioritizing work obviously you have
to have a passion about wanting to help
people and that and you have to also be
fair in your assessment of situations we
try to be very impartial and balanced
when we're making decisions about
offenders keeping in mind though that
ultimately the community safety is first
and foremost but that does require a lot
of compassion and then also passion at
the same time for what it is that you're
doing the people you're working with
I would probably guess that as well
frankly as as much as much speech you
can take so I know that there's a
debating classes occasionally your
speech classes
and that's just to assist you with
feeling a little more comfortable
talking in front of large groups of
people we may be leading groups certain
treatment groups and so we have to have
an ability to be able to talk to groups
of people also of course when you
testify generally you're testifying in
an open court and there tends to be an
audience out there as well so those are
some additional skills that might be
helpful if you're looking at a career
ultimately in probation so okay
and for people that are interested in
getting into this area line of work and
in this field how do you go about
finding a job and either probation at a
county level or in your case at a
federal level well each agency has a
human resources either manager or
director within the agency I know that
the u.s. probation offices around the
country a lot of them will post
positions within usajobs.gov also that
they will advertise in local
newspapers which is what we do here as
well so sometimes contacting the u.s.
probation office or the county probation
office within your area or students area
to find out their positions available is
best and of course now with of course
most agencies having a website then
go to the agency's website and usually
job position announcements will be
posted there as well so okay and
what are the the entry-level
requirements for working in federal
probation in the District of Oregon we
require a master's degree and two years
the minimum experience in the field as
either a probation officer a case
manager or something of similar nature
the degree can be in the administration
of justice Corrections Social Work
psychology or one of the Social Sciences
we've had actually so is it is it a
master's degree or a Bachelor it's a
bachelor's degree here did I say Master
bachelor's degree here other districts
around the country may require a
master's degree so keep in mind that the
you know district of Arizona for example
may require a master's where the
District of Oregon requires a Bachelor
so it's going to vary depending which
upon which US probation offices it is
that you're applying with and one would
think because it's a federal agency that
that would be consistent nationwide but
it's not it's up to each district to
determine the minimum requirements and
we have the bachelors with the two years
paid experience so also while not
required
certainly it is helpful because you're
tested and interviewed prior to being
hired within our district that you have
a knowledge of how a criminal case moves
through the court system you just have
to have that basic understanding because
without that you're you're probably not
going to be in the best position to be
able to articulate and support
recommendations to the court you just
have to know how cases move through the
judicial process and have that
basic knowledge you can consider a
postgraduate degree I know with some
districts around the country they will
allow that as a substitute for the two
years experience so certainly a master's
degree is encouraged in a lot of
districts and I think that that's
probably true for a lot of the local
community based Corrections agencies as
well and certainly if you have any
skills in a second language some other
districts and even our district likes to
see that as a skill or certainly another
that could be advantageous to some of
the other districts when they're looking
for filling positions especially if
there's a population of offenders in
which that skill is something that's
acquired or beneficial and I know a
lot of the southern districts look for
bilingual
applicants down south so okay um you
mentioned that getting into federal
probation here in Oregon requires pretty
much two years of some kind of
experience paid experience how would
people go about getting that experience
in order to be able to qualify typically
what we've seen from applicants in the
past they've worked with the county
probation offices they have been paid as
temps possibly with as probation
assistance and if you have any case
management experience meaning you worked
with the offenders helped make referrals
even if you've worked with in a jail
setting provided that you also
understand referral process did case
management help perhaps with transition
programming those kinds of things would
be helpful if you are a law enforcement
officer that may qualify you for your
two years depending on what you did
within the particular agency if you're a
road officer maybe not so much so
because there's not much in the way of
case management that's there it's not to
say that you would be excluded it just
may not be something that that perhaps
would have you as a better candidate so
certainly case management referrals I'm
working with offenders and that capacity
is probably most advantageous in our
district anyway so okay you you would
mentioned for yourself that your first
entree point into this field was an
internship and I know that you've worked
with a number of our interns from the
campus program and this in criminology
criminal justice I'm wondering if you can
tell us how would a student go about
getting an internship and federal
probation was the process for doing that
in our some of the u.s. probation
offices don't have internship programs
fortunately our district does we're very
supportive of the program we see the
benefit to the students and essentially
you could probably contact
a receptionist the general u.s.
probation contact number within the
district and ask if there is an
internship program within the agency
if so there'll be a coordinator that
they'll probably transfer you to and I'm
I happen to be the coordinator for the
district of Oregon's probation office
and we work in collaboration with
obviously the University we have
agreements established with University
so we know the requirements of the
student as they're doing their
internship and they have an
understanding of our minimum
requirements as well so it's a
collaborative effort so yeah okay all
right obviously as I mentioned you've
had experience dealing with some of our
students and in the role of internships
and I'm wondering if you can just
comment on the benefits from your
perspective of having a higher education
having a degree when you're working in a
field like this sure one of the things
I've noticed about the students that
come in who are in their junior senior
years they are very skilled and
recognizing that there is a potential
need for a good work ethic to be able to
understand you need to be on time that
that there's multitasking involved and a
lot of students who have extended
education or higher education through
a multitude of classes that they're
participating in have to acquire those
kinds of skills anyway they have to be
able to prioritize they know they have
tasks they know that they have
assignments they have to multitask and
those are the same kinds of things that
come and those skills come in handy with
interns coming in and looking to do
internships and so we think that they
have those kind of essential bare
essential skills so that when we're
providing assignments to them they're
able to kind of take off with them and
not have to mandate so much supervision
they can be pretty independent once
they've been given some instructions and
that's that's what we have found is that
we haven't had to go back and repeat
instructions to students time and time
again because they seem to understand
that they've
been in that practice habit after having
been in school for a few years so it's
definitely a benefit to us to have a
student who's been involved and is an
upperclassman within the universities
okay
are there other skill sets or things
that you're looking for in terms of
internship students a lot of a lot of
probation offices we have a minimum
cumulative GPA and that's within the
criteria and we do have that at 2.75 and
that again is because one and this is
probably true for a lot of interns
within federal probation or pretrial
services offices is that we are very
selective about who comes over and does
an internship because we realize there's
we put a lot on the students we
essentially swear them in as sworn
intern officers it's a it's a big to-do
frankly within the agency and and then
after an orientation they're doing
pretty much almost everything that our
officers do with the exception of
writing a pre-sentence report and
supervising a caseload themselves but
there they sit in on office visits they
conduct background investigations or
assist the officer with doing that
collecting the data summarizing reports
writing reports so that way by the time
their internship has ended they have a
very good understanding of what being a
probation officer entails and whether
they're really up to doing that to
actually having a career in that field
and we've had some students who have
said I really don't think I can do this
because I thought I can work with
offender populations and I don't believe
I can or boy there's a lot involved this
is a stressful job there's a lot
happening and we'd rather students learn
this before they are finished with their
college education then after they start
a job essentially so it's it's a great
program we really immerse the students
and what it is the officers do and we've
received some really good feedback and
we our program is evolving based on the
student
- feedback - so it's something I highly
highly recommend to students seeking
seeking your career in probation or any
anything Corrections or law
enforcement-related and we we certainly
highly recommend that students do an
internship - it's a wonderful
opportunity to get real applied
experience develop relationships often
leads to jobs for some of our students
absolutely
well that that ends the the plans
sessions of questions that we had put
together in advance and we wanted to now
turn to some of the questions that the
participants in this webinar can submit
okay the first question we have is
student is wondering if there's age
restrictions in terms of getting into a
job in this field with the u.s.
probation office there is actually
because we're considered federal law
enforcement and hazardous duty we if
you're you have to start your first day
of employment before you reach your 37th
birthday and that's because we are a
mandatory out at age 57 because of our
law enforcement designation and you have
to have 20 years in obviously before you
can retire so you do have to officially
start your first day prior to your 37th
birthday because of that yes okay the
next question that was submitted is
asking about whether or not there's
physical requirements so do you have a
physical abilities test that that
applicants have to pass in order to get
hired officers should be fit for duty
they do have to go through a medical
examination and of course be found to be
fit to perform the job and then of
course they have to pass that new
officer training that I've talked about
well maybe I didn't we do the new
officers have a six-week training that
they have to pass and that's actually in
South Carolina it's a six-week course
and half of its classroom and the other
half is defensive tactics and firearms
training so they would need to be able
to actually pass all of the requirements
of that particular training so you do
need to be
fit enough to at least pass that and
subsequent trainings that we have during
the course of your career so yes okay
all right the next question is a very
practical one what is the job outlook
for for this field are there you know a
lot of positions available but it's
coming open
how does it look well the the u.s.
probation office in the district of
Oregon
isn't real large actually we probably
have about sixty eight full-time staff
district-wide which means for the entire
state and I would venture to guess that
we have approximately thirty six US
probation officers within the district
of Oregon so but we are growing and it's
because a lot of us are retiring and
fairly young at that also of course we
are since we're a federal agency we
are dependent on federal budget and we
at times if there are budget constraints
because of continuing resolutions and
whatnot were somewhat impacted we are in
the process of hiring actually now a lot
of agencies u.s. probation aid agencies
around the country are and it is a
growing field actually it's just really
dependent on budgets of course and its
budgets passed on the federal level and
then also within local communities so
that's usually what may stall some
hiring but there's always attrition and
there are always people retiring and it
seems like I think there's a lot of
growth within the agency I also think
that with a lot of evidence-based
practices or new ways of conducting
business within Corrections that we'll
probably see more community based
programs funded that may be related to
probation services as well because it's
simply less expensive to program an
offender in the community than it is to
house them within a facility and so I
think that fact in and of itself will
probably also lead to positions becoming
available within Community Corrections
in the future too
okay one of the other current trends in
Community Corrections is to have
probation and parole officers more
involved in the actual delivery of
treatment services and counseling
services and I'm wondering if that's
consistent with what's happening in the
federal system do you see a kind of an
increased opportunity for actually
carrying out services and delivering
services we do I know on the local level
with a lot of county or state probation
offices you will have a lot of officers
trained and facilitating certain groups
either cognitive behavioral therapy
alcohol and drug treatment sessions a
lot of us probation offices around the
country do actually have their officers
do that and some of the officers are
required to do that and they rotate
those positions throughout in the
district of Oregon we haven't had that
yet but I believe at some point in the
future officers will probably be trained
in facilitating those groups themselves
as well and that could be driven by
budget it used to be that we would pay
vendors within the community to actually
facilitate groups and it is now because
of again of costs associated with that
something that we're looking at
providing internally so that's something
that we probably will be moving to at
some point in the future okay I always
have students in my criminal behavior
class every term that I teach it who are
interested in criminal profiling and and
I talked to them about the reality of
only having maybe ten jobs available
across the whole country in that and you
know if they really want to understand
offenders and how offenders think and
and the best way to do that is to
actually work with them and either a
treatment capacity or in a probation
capacity you spend a lot more time with
them we can really get to understand how
they think and the issues that come up
for them exactly
so exactly okay the next question has to
do with whether or not the federal
system that you work in deals with
minors juveniles as well as adults or
there are two separate systems that
handle that no we actually do have some
minors that are prosecuted we don't see
it very often because really the
government
doesn't like to bring minors into the
federal system but we have the the
government has prosecuted minors on rare
occasion for bank robbery for example or
other federal crimes bank robbery you
can't you know because it's the bank is
FDIC insured the only place that that
crime could be prosecuted is within
federal courts and not really within a
state court system so so if the juvenile
is going to be prosecuted for committing
a bank robbery it's going to happen in
federal court but not not it's not very
common it's not very frequent I can
probably count and I've been with in the
federal system over 18 years I probably
count on five on five fingers a hand the
number of students are not students I'm
sorry the number of juveniles that have
come through the federal system it's
just it's just something that doesn't
occur very often okay you mentioned bank
robbers what are some of the other kind
of the most common offenders or cases
that you deal with in the federal system
there's a lot of drug possession and
manufacturing and distribution so drug
charges are common in the federal system
obviously bank robbery a lot thanks to
the internet we have a lot of child
pornography cases that are prosecuted in
the federal system so those are the most
common we have several white-collar
crimes fraud for example tax evasion
illegal reentry is another popular crime
that's prosecuted in the federal court
systems that probably comprises the our
system most of the cases that we see
with with smatterings of other types of
federal cases as well
okay all right can you talk a little bit
more about the different career paths
and options for people that go into
probation
as a field within and I think I believe
this is true to the county system but
probation services will have because
again we have such a diverse group of
offender populations that we work with
many special needs so what will happen
is that even within a probation office
you will have specialized units or
officers working with those specialized
populations of offenders so they'll be
on county levels you'll see domestic
violence and DUI case loads so there's
opportunities to work within specialized
populations there we have sex offender
specialists we've got again a white
collar or financial specialist within
our office we have the WITSEC which is
the witness protection program on the
federal level and we have an officer
works with those cases so there's an
opportunity to work with very diverse
populations of offenders and those are
often specialized positions in the
federal agencies that means those are
promotional opportunities for people I
was the mental health specialist so I
had a caseload of mental health
offenders that's another and you hear
about mental health courts and reentry
courts so there are all kinds of
different opportunities within the
probation system to work within
depending on populations of offenders
and programs within each agency so
there's and that keeps you fresh I think
with having an opportunity to kind of
change things up a little bit and that's
one of the things I've appreciated about
my careers the how diverse my career has
been even within the federal system
because I've had those opportunities to
work in different positions within the
agency okay one of the other common
beliefs about the federal system is that
you're going to get shipped anywhere
that you'll end up in North Dakota or
you know somewhere back east and you're
gonna have to move is that accurate well
the nice thing about the u.s. probation
office is and is that we don't work for
the Department of Justice we work for
the US courts and since I'm an employee
of the US courts within the obviously I
work within the district of Oregon I'm
not going to be shipped to another
district because that district has their
own chief probation officer and their
own requirements so and we don't move
even though we have five offices within
the district of Oregon the federal
probation offices within the district of
Oregon we don't have we don't force our
employer or employees to move to a
different location because we're
sensitive to the fact that someone has
roots within their community they have
children in schools are tied and we
haven't had to do that I can't speak for
other districts but it's very very
uncommon that someone is is made to
relocate because frankly there's there's
demand for these positions and we can
fill a position if something becomes
available in another office so we don't
relocate people unless someone wants to
move from one office to the other within
Oregon and there's an opening there then
of course we would support that so okay
the next question goes back to the idea
of being being shipped off or moved the
individual is interested in knowing
whether or not it's best if you're going
to try and move into the federal law
enforcement system or federal probation
to be willing and flexible about moving
to get a job in the first place
most definitely we've had several
officers essentially just want to be
hired with a federal probation office
and they're willing to relocate in order
for that to happen and they've arrived
in Oregon from Texas and they've been
here ever since some agency some US
probation offices will look for a
commitment of a couple of years we
haven't done that in our district maybe
it's because we think that Oregon such a
great place to live nobody's gonna want
to leave here anytime soon - not while its raining -
maybe not while it's raining but yes I
certainly especially with federal
probation jobs
I would encourage somebody to look
outside their immediate area that
working within the federal system is is
wonderful it's de creme de la creme if
you're going to look at probation
services and my my thinking is that if
the district Western District of
Washington is hiring and you live in the
northern district California certainly
why not because you can get that
experience you may end up liking living
in Seattle or wherever and that's going
to be quite appealing when there is a
position in the u.s. probation office in
California that perhaps you later want
to apply with so definitely if you see a
position available in another state and
you're comfortable with relocating I
would encourage folks to apply in those
districts outside their area okay all
right well Wendy that's the last
question that we have submitted by the
participants in the webinar I want to
thank you very much for coming in today
on what was a sunny day and now a
rainy day to talk to us about this
exciting area of work and so thank you
very much for coming in thank you for
inviting me and thank you everybody for
participating in this webinar
