With today’s modern technology, workplaces have begun implementing programs and devices that increase productivity and the ease of management. US Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that by the end of 2020, up to 77% of jobs would use technology on a regular basis [1]. With an increase in offenders under supervision after their release, probation and parole officers must find ways to incorporate modern technology and software into their daily supervision tasks.
Management of offenders doesn’t have to feel stressful. The right digital forensic services can equip probation and parole officers with digital forensic tools tailored to their everyday needs. This post will cover six benefits of using probation management software.
6 Benefits of Using Probation Management Software, Digital Forensics Tool
One may wonder why is digital forensics important in probation management. By providing digital forensics training and reporting skills to probation and parole officers, they can conduct their own scans of offender devices. The benefits of giving community supervision probation management software allow for…
1. Supervision check-ins and device monitoring that is easy and rapid. They can acquire the evidence needed to successfully prosecute a case.
- Many agencies lack the additional resources needed to send all mobile and computer devices to a forensic lab for analysis. Often labs find themselves with a backlog of cases resulting in a long delay. Evidence that could prove useful in a prosecution is not obtained quickly enough. With access to management software, probation and parole officers can take digital forensics and incident response into their hands. By being able to scan a mobile or computer device during their check-ins they will be privy to any incriminating evidence sooner rather than later.
- Use probation software to scan iOS and Android devices
- Filter through images and videos for victim images
- Create reports to share evidence with your team
2. Probation and parole officers can better manage the increasing number of supervised offenders.
- Community supervision may have a larger caseload as more offenders are released under supervision requirements. Probation management software can effectively help them handle the growing number of cases.
3. Improved quality of service to their community.
- Access to probation management software means they can lessen the gaps in supervision. Gaps in supervision are a detriment to the rehabilitation of offenders. Inadequate supervision places communities at risk and reduces probation/parole’s goal to reduce recidivism.
4. All in one viable solution for field-based offender management
- Enable agents to make rapid field checks on convicted sex offenders, fraud offenders, and cyber criminals on parole.
- Agents can be prepared with predefined or custom profiles and scan the target mobile device or computer on the scene. With these prepared search profiles, agents can be ready for multiple field checks for different offenders. Whether they are looking for sexual material in a sex offender’s recent search history or for fraudulent activity they will be able to adapt their digital forensics tool and get the exact information they need to prosecute.
5. Manage all correction processes
- Community Supervision. The two main types of community supervision include probation and parole. Probation is an alternative sentence to jail or prison. Probation is the most widely used corrections tool that continues to increase at a fast rate [2]. Parole agents are responsible for hearings on releasing offenders from incarceration and supervision after their release [2].
- Adult and Juvenile. Correctional facilities and tools such as community supervision are established for both adults and juveniles.
6. Analyze evidence collected
- Email analysis, Internet analysis, Image analysis
- Investigate browsers such as Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and more.
- Analyze images and videos from an offender's mobile or computer device. Filter out the images collected with built-in filters in the tool such as a timeline view. Specific image types can be targeted based on the offender's known behaviors, assisting agents in reducing the amount of time they spend attempting to locate illicit materials.
- Digital forensic tools can also analyze mobile devices and computer devices. When analyzing computer devices a live analysis can be done to collect volatile memory such as RAM capture obtaining unsaved documents, passwords, credentials, and more. Investigators can recover data, documents, photos, and emails from a computer’s hard drive or zip and flash drive storage devices. Scanning mobile devices can yield call logs, calendars, contacts, installed applications, messages, searched items, web history, wireless networks, media, and documents.
Establishing the use of probation software greatly benefits the community overall. By providing the digital forensics tools probation and parole officers need to continuously and regularly monitor offenders, the risk to the community is lowered. Digital forensics reporting curated by probation software can assist in helping supervisors and treatment counselors detect patterns and in turn enforce the right treatment plan tailored to each individual offender. Probation and parole officers can effectively follow through with their mission to reduce recidivism and increase safety within communities. They will no longer have to rely solely on police digital forensics and submitting devices through a lab where there may be lengthy backlogs. Rapid response and intervention to future offenses can be immediate.
Probation software such as ADF Solutions includes features such as Instant Mobile Preview, Screenshot Mobile Evidence, and Facial Recognition.
Learn how to empower your team to make immediate decisions and speed up the protection of victims.