Federal Probation

Federal Probation (ISSN 0014-9128) is dedicated to informing its readers about current thought, research, and practice in corrections and criminal justice. The journal welcomes the contributions of persons who work with or study juvenile and adult offenders and invites authors to submit articles describing experience or significant findings regarding the prevention and control of delinquency and crime. A style sheet is available from the editor. Federal Probation is published semiannually in June and Decem-ber. Permission to quote is granted on the condition that appropriate credit is given the author and Federal Probation. For information about reprinting articles, please contact the editor. Subscriptions to Federal Probation are available from the Superintendent of Documents at an annual rate of $6.50 ($8.15 foreign). Please see the subscription order form on the back inside cover of this issue for more information. survey of the substance abuse literature on the effectiveness of various levels of coercion. Their review provides support for the dictum that legally referred clients do as well or better than voluntary clients in and after treatment. The review also reveals some divergence in findings. Monitoring Prescription Medication Use Among Substance-Abusing Offenders.—Offenders' use of prescription medications either to get high or to mask illegal drug use presents a challenge to probation officers. These drugs are prescribed by physicians and not easily within officers' control. They can hinder treatment and long-term sobriety and abstinence. Author Sam Torres discusses this unique supervision dilemma and offers techniques to address it. The Probation and Pretrial Services Automated Case Tracking System: A Review of Operations.— About a decade ago, the need to develop a uniform data collection system for U.S. probation and pretrial services offices became very clear. The system that resulted—the Probation and Pretrial Services Automated Case Tracking System (PACTS)—is the subject of an article based on a report published by the Federal Corrections and Supervision Division of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The article discusses PACTS' development, explains how post-implementation reviews were conducted to evaluate PACTS operations, and summarizes recommendations for improving PACTS. REDUCE: The Six Aims of Financial Investigations for Probation Officers.—How does the offender get money? How does he spend it? Financial investigations are one tool probation officers use to answer these questions. They help officers in making appropriate sentencing recommendations to the court and in supervising offenders. Author Arthur L. Bowker defines financial investigations, explains the aims of financial investigations, and …