MD Officers Push Back On Caseloads

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Citing "unmanageable caseloads," Maryland parole and probation officers are meeting next week with government officials to develop a "commonsense agreement on caseloads and overtime," reports AFSCME Maryland. Almost 600 General Supervision Agents in the city of Baltimore and Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George's counties - represented by AFSCME Local 3661 - are pushing for a plan that allows "agents constantly monitoring high-risk offenders to meet with offenders once every other week." AFSCME MD Organizer Joe Cox told Union City, “These agents recently fought back against an additional increase to their contact standards and won.” He added, “The upcoming meeting with the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services is about winning overtime and caseload reductions, because even the status quo they are now back to is too much to handle in a 40-hour workweek. It is a step in the right direction towards giving a total of 840 agents state-wide the resources they need to protect the public interest."
– photo courtesy Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services