2018-2019 MPOU Provider Survey

Department of Community Supervision

NOTE: Provider was contacted and entered a 1 instead of 5 throughout the survey.

Additional Comments:

• Nothing but good things to say! Our experience was quick and to the point with a few things to make sure we are following through with
• MPOU staff, as always were helpful and courteous
• Efficient doing it electronically.
• Anytime I've had questions from a monitor, I've received a response. Ms Holloway is amazing. Aura is amazing. The entire staff has always been welcoming.
• Was the best ever, I think that it went very well.
• John Coar was very helpful during the compliance review
• Ms. T. Dorsey conducted our audit in a most thorough, courteous and professional manner. She made the experience easy and pleasant. Given the size of our company she was meticulous and thorough. Her feedback and support has been much appreciated throughout the entire process.
• Ms. Varner handled our compliance review. She was very professional and listened to our concerns. She was very easy to work with during the compliance review.
• In our experience, we have found that Ms. Smalley and Ms. Varner-Burney are open to feedback and explanations from providers regarding supervision issues that come to light during the audit process. This is very much appreciated. When providers and the MPOU work together to come up with reasonable solutions to improve the supervision of offenders, I believe the system works at its best.

Comments:

• I understand that MPOU is set up to monitor agencies and ensure that we are following guidelines, statutes, and operating in an ethical manner. But, I really appreciate the quick responses, the transparency, and the accessibility the MPOU offers from the top down. It is a difficult task to both monitor and provide customer service, but I think MPOU has found success in doing both.
• I am grateful for the leadership of the MPOU and for the hard work that you do to help make misdemeanor probation supervision in Georgia the best that it can be!
• I appreciate your time and patience and I'm extremely grateful for the training opportunities that MPOU is providing. I've learned for every monitor that I've had the pleasure of meeting. Audits will always be intense, but I appreciate MPOU for making it less stressful.
• Appreciate all the communication through email.
• Y'all do a good job. Sometimes it's not pretty, but it's very necessary.
• The communication is great. They are working hard to make Probation great
• It's been wonderful to work together in this industry instead of feeling like we are on opposing sides.
• We appreciated all the customer service MPOU provides. It’s very reassuring that we have someone we can call if any issues arise and that will help us as much as is needed to successfully alleviate the situation. We are truly thankful for MPOU and DCS
• MPOU is actually here to help point out areas that need improvement. (high liability areas)
• It certainly felt as though Director Neville's goal of teaching, coaching and partnering have been accepted by the field compliance analysts.
• The willingness of the Compliance Monitors to have an open mind to hear the position of the agencies and Transparency

Suggestions:

• I think a lot of the information could've been sent via the internet, which would keep the stress off of the probation teams.
• Changes in procedures should be "posted" on the MPOU website (so the change is dated) to ensure that auditors do not list something as a finding if the new rule was not in effect at that time.
• Suggestions for Best Practice in adding some additional documentation to support terms listed in Service Agreements
• One thing I would like to see is more training available online for our continuing education . we have a small office and sometimes it very hard to close up for training . All training so far has been a minimum of 1.5 to 2 hrs away from our office . There is not very many options online without costing a fee for the course. It would be so helpful if we could just log in when we had time during the day and still be able to deal with probationers as they come into our offices without having to close up completely.
• Previous audits did not identify issues presented in our most recent audit which was troubling.
• Is it possible to keep the same audit monitor from year to year. They seem to switch often.

​

2019 Training Stats

• 513 attendees have attended MPOU in 2019 (37 days of Training)
• 430 in 2018 (31 days of Training)

MPOU has completed 100% of the audits scheduled for this year

• 75 Providers
• 51 Governmental
• 24 Private
• 791 Service Agreements
• 148 Governmental
• 643 Private

Trends in Liability Findings since 2016

2016= 261 (Baseline Audit)

2017= 256 (Statewide Training Implemented)

2018= 101 (Corrective Action Letters/Internal Audits)

2019= 24!!!!