Interstate Compact War Stories

I am the Interstate Compact contact person for our county. For the uninitiated, the Interstate Compact is a set of rules and procedures that all probation and parole departments from all states must comply with when transferring supervision of probation from one state to another.

Well, all states are SUPPOSED to comply with the rules and procedures.

The basic set-up for an interstate transfer is this: each state has its own Interstate Compact office. A transfer request goes from the local probation officer to the Interstate Compact office of his/her own state, to the Interstate Compact office of the receiving state, to the local probation officer in the receiving state. Communication from the receiving state takes the reverse path back to the original probation officer. So, for instance, if I want to transfer supervision of probation to Pullman, Washington, my request first goes to the Indiana Interstate Compact Office in Indianapolis, then to the Washington Interstate Compact Office in Olympia, then to the local probation department in Whitman County, Washington.

The whole process is done electronically. There are a whole slew of rules that we have to follow (somewhere around 65 pages, if I remember correctly), full of criteria that make transfers mandatory (the receiving state is required to accept supervision) or discretionary (the receiving state has the option to say, "No, thanks. Keep your probationer in your own state.") and full of deadlines for various procedures. Transferring probation to another state is a rather time-sensitive process. The ladies who work in the Indiana Interstate Compact Office have done a great job emphasizing to all of us that we are subject to massive fines, the wrath of God, and other bad things if we don't comply with the rules and the time deadlines. So I work hard to make sure I'm always in compliance.

That apparently doesn't hold true for other states, however. I am CONSTANTLY frustrated by other states that clearly have no regard for the Interstate Compact rules.

Most recently, I sent a transfer request to California. By rule, they have 45 calendar days to investigate the request and respond. Forty-five days came and went, so I sent a message to California, asking them to respond. No answer. I enlisted the help of the Indiana Interstate Compact Office, who contacted the California Interstate Compact Office, who contacted the local probation officer in California. No answer. More messages went to California, asking them to respond to the transfer request. No answer. Finally, after 104 days--more than twice as long as the Interstate Compact rules allow for--California responded...and rejected my request. After the rejection, I sent a message out there, asking if there was a particular reason that it took 104 days to respond, when the rules only allow for 45 days. You can probably guess how that has worked out. No answer.

Right on the heels of that fiasco, I sent a request for reporting instructions to Georgia. Reporting instructions are who, when, and where the receiving state wants the probationer to report to upon arrival in the receiving state. By rule, states have two (2) business days to respond to a request for reporting instructions. I sent my request on July 29, which gave Georgia until August 2 to respond. August 2 comes and goes, and no response. The Indiana Interstate Compact Office was all over it, and they immediately started sending messages to the Georgia Interstate Compact Office, requesting a response. It took somewhere in the neighborhood of five or six messages for Georgia to finally respond--on August 11. That's nine (9) business days, for those of you scoring at home. Their reasoning for being so slow? They're down three employees right now, so they're really busy. I didn't realize that being busy exempted us from complying with the Interstate Compact rules!

Speaking of Georgia, I transferred someone to them quite some time ago, and when it came time to discharge his probation, I ran his criminal history...only to discover that he had committed a new criminal offense in Georgia that they never told me about. Not only had he been arrested, he had been convicted, placed on probation in the same county that was supervising my case, violated his probation there, and was sent to jail on their case. But for some reason, Georgia never stopped to think that I might want to know about that, too.

And STILL speaking of Georgia, I currently have a probationer I transferred there over a year ago. Interstate Compact rules require that we send annual progress reports to the sending state when supervising one of their probationers. Has Georgia done that? No. But they want to close her case out (two months past her discharge date) because her probation has expired. I sent a message to Georgia, telling them that I won't approve the case closure until they send me a progress report, since I have no idea what she has completed and not completed while on probation. In fact, I had to file a probation violation, alleging that she completed nothing while on probation, because I had no information from Georgia to the contrary. I sent the message to Georgia a week and a half ago. Still waiting on that progress report.

Florida routinely pisses me off. The latest was a probationer of theirs who I was supervising, and he picked up new felony charges here in Indiana. Florida issued a warrant for his arrest as a result, didn't bother to notify me that the warrant was issued for over a month, and then when my probationer was arrested on the warrant, Florida refused to extradite him. So Indiana authorities had to release him. I sent repeated messages to Florida asking them what, exactly, they wanted me to do with him since he's doing nothing on probation, he's not paying any of his fees owed to Indiana, he's committing new felonies here, he has a warrant out of Florida, but Florida won't come and get him. Weeks go by with no response. So I ask them to allow me to close out the case. A month and a half goes by, and no response. The Indiana Interstate Compact Office got involved, and after lots of messages back and forth, Florida finally responded: they denied my request. They still want him to report to me. Why? I have no idea. Absolutely nothing constructive is coming from me wasting my time meeting with him.

Texas has pissed me off several times. So has Kentucky. And New York. Arkansas ignored me when I was having problems with one of their probationers and was asking for their help. My one experience with Utah has been a pain in the ass, trying to get any response of any kind from the Utah probation officer. Ohio is hit or miss--sometimes they're great, and sometimes they're total pricks. I'm not entirely convinced that Virginia has computers, because I routinely send stuff there, never to be heard from again.

Illinois has pissed me off a few times by rejecting various requests before they even send it to the local probation officer to decide. One time, I sent a discretionary transfer through, but it was going to the county where one of my favorite probation officers in the whole wide world works. I was pretty confident that she'd accept supervision, even though she didn't have to, because she understands the concept of doing what's best for the probationer, even if it means more work for her. But the Illinois Interstate Compact Office didn't even let her see the request, much less respond to it. They just denied it. So I contacted her directly, we worked out a little arrangement on the side, and she supervised my probationer for me outside of the rules of the Interstate Compact.

I could go on forever with war stories from the Interstate Compact. I'm not saying that Indiana's poop doesn't stink, but by God, if you transfer a case to my county, you're not going to have any of the above problems.

What sets me off the fastest is when states don't give a damn about what's best for the probationer. All they do is look for a reason not to accept the case, so they don't have to do the additional work.

It also sets me off when probation officers in other states don't respond to requests for communication. We're on the same team, folks! Show a little professional courtesy! Treat others the way you want to be treated!

And it chaps my hide that these offending states never suffer any consequences. No fines, no wrath of God, no sanctions for thumbing their noses at the Compact rules. So what motivation do they have to change their ways? None.

I have had some good experiences with the Interstate Compact. Oklahoma accepted a case from me that they weren't required to. So did Hawaii. I've had mostly good experiences with Michigan. South Dakota is doing a great job with one of my current probationers. West Virginia has communicated well with me on a few cases, and South Carolina has been more good than bad. Arizona was a total pain in the ass before the current automated system went into effect, but now they're pretty good.

And just today, with the help of one of the ladies at the Indiana Interstate Compact Office, Tennessee did me a huge favor and let one of my probationers head their way immediately, when they didn't have to.

So I'm curious. If anyone is still awake after reading this novel, and you have experience with the Interstate Compact, as a state contact person, a local probation officer, or a probationer, post a comment below and share your experiences, good or bad. I'm curious to know if I'm the only person in the country who wants to drive down to Atlanta and smack every one of those people in the Georgia Interstate Compact Office up side of the head, and if my positive experience with Tennessee was an anomaly, or if that's how they normally do business.

Let's trade war stories! It'll make you feel better, and who knows...maybe someone in Georgia will read this and be motivated to get their shit together down there.