‘Probation was a great way to go’: exploring community corrections officers’ professional perceptions and orientations

This mixed method study centers the lived experiences of community corrections officers (CCOs) in one southeastern US state, asking officers what initially attracted them to probation/parole and what work they find most meaningful. This study also explores possible associations between CCOs’ professional orientations and their motivation for pursuing careers in probation/parole and the job tasks officers find most and least rewarding. CCOs highlighted several popular pathways to probation/parole, often citing academic programs or internships that introduced them to the field. Overwhelmingly, officers valued helping clients, and they frequently identified supporting clients and ensuring public safety as reasons to remain in the field. Quantitative findings observed associations between professional orientation and why CCOs were motivated to pursue careers in probation/parole and the job tasks they identified as rewarding. Implications are discussed, specifically as they apply to probation/parole departments’ recruitment, hiring, and retention efforts. The study’s contributions to the empirical literature on the working alliance and procedural justice are also outlined.