PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE

SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT

John Adams Courthouse
One Pemberton Square
Boston, Massachusetts 02108

CONTACT: Joan Kenney FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

617/557-1114 February 16, 2011
joan.kenney@sjc.state.ma.us

Supreme Judicial Court Assessing Task Force Action Plan

on Probation Department Reform

The Supreme Judicial Court is currently reviewing the recommendations in the

“Action Plan for Reform and Renewal of Probation Department Hiring and Promotion
Practices,” which was delivered to the Court on February 10, 2011, by the SJC’s Task
Force, chaired by former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger.

“The Task Force, under Attorney Harshbarger’s leadership, has produced a

thorough, first rate report in a very limited time frame,” said Chief Justice Roderick L.
Ireland. “I appreciate the hard work and dedication of the Task Force members.”

The comprehensive report calls for immediate action by the Court and
Legislature to restore the integrity in the hiring and promotion practices in the Probation
Department. The Action Plan outlines a detailed and substantive series of steps that the
Task Force believes will transform the Probation Department’s formerly corrupted hiring
process into a national model.

The action steps include the following:

• Adoption of seven nationally recognized and proven principles for

recruiting, hiring and promoting high quality Probation Officers;

• Implementation of a plan for recruiting, hiring and retaining Chief

Probation Officers of proven quality in positions that now are vacant or
filled by Acting Chiefs;

• Installation of an application tracking system that records all phases of the

application process, all actions taken by those involved in hiring and
promotion of an applicant and all recommendations and references any
applicant receives;

• Prompt restoration of managerial controls that were taken away from the
Chief Justice for Administration and Management in 2002;
 • Prompt review of staffing levels in the Probation Department to insure that
that the staff is appropriate for the number of cases the Department is
handling and that workloads are appropriately distributed; and

• Oversight of Probation hiring and promotion by an outside entity for the

next two years with periodic public reports of the reforms being
implemented in the Department and the results of such reforms.

The Task Force stated that a civil service approach to Probation hiring and
promotion would not achieve the necessary reforms and that the steps outlined in the
Action Plan were practical, cost-effective and long overdue. It also noted that several of
its recommendations had achieved broad consensus among various groups that had
offered suggestions for Probation reform.

Urging the Court to seize the opportunity for reform and to pursue that
opportunity relentlessly until transformation of the hiring and promotion process was
accomplished, the Task Force stated that all distraction from renewal and reform –
relocation or consolidation of the Probation Department, institutional barriers or simple
inertia – must give way to the restorative steps set out in the Action Plan. The Task
Force emphasized that restoration of integrity and public confidence in the Probation
Department demand intense and urgent focus.

Last December the Supreme Judicial Court established the Task Force to
undertake a comprehensive review of the hiring and promotion practices in the Judicial
Branch in the wake of the findings of corruption and systemic abuse in the hiring and
promotion practices of the Probation Department documented in the report of
Independent Counsel Paul Ware. The Justices charged the Task Force to “make
recommendations designed to ensure a fair system with transparent procedures in which
the qualifications of an applicant are the sole criterion on hiring and promotion.”

The Task Force presented Initial Recommendations to the Court on January 19,
2011, http://www.mass.gov/courts/sjc/docs/tf-judbranch-hiring-interim-report-
011911.pdf which included the recommendation that Dr. Ronald P. Corbett, Jr., be
appointed the Acting Commissioner of Probation for a two-year period. That
recommendation was promptly adopted by the Court. Chief Justice Mulligan appointed
Dr. Corbett as Acting Probation Commissioner for a two-year term on January 21, 2011.
Former Commissioner John J. O’Brien resigned on December 31, 2010.

On February 10, 2011, the Task Force delivered the final report with respect to
the Probation Department. (http://www.mass.gov/courts/sjc/docs/tf-judbranch-hiring-
actionplan-021011.pdf The members are now undertaking the other part of their mandate
to review and make recommendations of the hiring and promotion practices in the
Judicial Branch.
 The Task Force members are Scott Harshbarger, Chair; Stephen Crosby, Kate
Donovan, Ruth Ellen Fitch, Michael Keating, Bill Leahy, Hon. James McHugh, Susan
Prosnitz, Harry Spence, and Steven Wright.
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