Parole officers in Brockton, Massachusetts, work out of the Region 7 parole office, which is located in Brockton and serves the Brockton area. There were 6 parole officers working out of the Region 7 parole office, as of December 2010, each of whom had an average caseload of 54. The total number of parolees supervised by the Region 7 parole office during this time was 256, which totaled 8 percent of the total number of parolees in the Commonwealth.
Brockton and Plymouth are the county seats of Plymouth County. Brockton, which had a population of about 94,000, as of the 2010 census, is the seventh largest city in Massachusetts.
Parole Officer Careers in Brockton, Massachusetts: Minimum Entrance Requirements
In addition to possessing a valid Massachusetts driver’s license and being able to obtain a permit to carry firearms, all candidates for parole officer jobs in Brockton must meet specific education and/or experience requirements, which include the following:
- 5 years of full-time, professional work experience in: probation or parole work, rehabilitation counseling, psychology, criminal justice, social work, vocational counseling, or social work; OR
Work experience may be substituted for education, in the areas of criminal justice, law, psychology, social work, law enforcement, sociology, rehabilitation, counseling or human services, as follows:
- An associate’s degree or higher: 2 years = 6 months of experience
- A master’s degree: 2 years = 1 year of experience
- A doctorate degree: 1 year = 1 year of experience
How to Become a Parole Officer in Brockton through Training
Specific training is mandatory for all new parole officers in Brockton. Further, depending on the position obtained, individuals may be required to complete training and receive certification in one or more of the following areas:
- Firearms
- Firearms Instructors
- Handgun Retention
- Defensive Tactics Instruction
- Pepper Spray
About the Massachusetts Parole Board
The Region 7 parole office is part of the Massachusetts Parole Board, an agency within the Executive Office of Public Safety. The Massachusetts Parole Board conducts more than 10,000 in-person release hearings and supervises about 8,000 parolees every year. The Parole Board consists of 7 members, who are appointed by the Governor and serve a term of 5 years.
The Massachusetts Parole Board and the parole officers serving the Commonwealth provide services to the state and county correctional facilities and to the 8 region parole offices (note: there is no Region 3 parole office), which include:
- Region 1: Quincy
- Region 2: Mattapan
- Region 4: Worcester
- Region 5: Springfield
- Region 6: Lawrence
- Region 7: Brockton
- Region 8: New Bedford
- Region 9: Framingham
In 2006, the success rate for parolees who successfully completed their parole sentence for the Massachusetts Parole Board was 64 percent. Twenty-six percent of parolees committed a technical violation and 10 percent were re-arrested for committing another crime.