After staying up a little too late last week to watch a movie, a young probationer got an unusual wake up call around 10:30 a.m.-- he found his probation officer standing over his bed, trying to rouse him from a deep sleep.  Just an hour earlier, probation officers had gone through the same drill with another offender in the area who was content to sleep his day away.

These two probationers aren't the only ones who've been starting their days off this way lately.  A handful of youthful offenders in the Boston-area have had similar experiences since May, when Operation Alarm Clock began and probation officers starting going into bedrooms during the morning hours to wake up their clients, who should be out working, looking for jobs or going to school.

 "We thought this was a good initiative to kind of get people in tune with the rest of the world and help them with their rehabilitation," said Tony Gully, Assistant Chief Probation Officer for the Dorchester, Mass., District Court. 

The program is the brainchild of Gully and fellow probation officer Tom Todd who created it to give an added layer of supervision to probationers who need an extra boost to get out of the house and look for a job.  It's designed to ensure that offenders are complying with the terms of their probation, which typically include working or going to school, refraining from travel and abiding by a curfew.

Offenders are hand-picked for Operation Alarm Clock by the six probation officers who oversee youthful offenders, ages 17-23, in Dorchester and Mattapan, two Boston boroughs.  Currently, the officers have identified about 30 candidates for the program, mostly people who require maximum supervision.  But it's not in full-swing yet.

"[We hope to] build up to full capacity by the middle of the fall," Gully said.

For the time being, though, probation officers are dropping in on members of a test group of offenders, late at night or early in the morning to make sure they are either home and in bed or waking up to start the day.  It's important to get these individuals into a routine, so they can successfully complete their probation and function in society, Gully said.

"It's targeted towards getting people up in the morning because that's the way a good portion of the world operates," Gully said.  "You have to be persistent in trying to get a job."

Focusing on Employment

Offenders who are looking for employment need to go to personnel offices early in the morning and early in the week in order to apply for jobs, Gully said.  Also, they can't go in there looking disheveled; they need to make a good impression on employers, he said.

"The employer expects a certain image," Gully said.  "Perhaps these guys need to learn to get along, you go along."

Since helping these probationers to find a job is a main goal of the program, probation officers not only go to their homes and wake them up, but they also distribute materials to them that can help them in their hunt for employment or education.

"[We give them a] leaflet on some of the programs that are available to them and temp agencies and GED programs," Gully said.  "We even take copies of the classified ads in the daily newspaper."

If offenders aren't home when their probation officers stop by to check on them, they leave a fuscia-colored card at their doors, indicating that they need to contact the court to let them know what programs they are involved with or what kind of employment they have secured.

"Every week [we try] to have some kind of contact [with the offender]," Gully said.  "You can't forget about them."

But, an offender never knows exactly when the probationer officers will be stopping by his home, which is another important piece of Operation Alarm Clock.

Stopping in on Offenders

"We don't want to tell them what time," Gully said.  "[We want] to kind of rent some space in the probationer's head."

The element of surprise - never knowing when your probation officer will be checking up on you - will motivate offenders to do what they are supposed to be doing and get out of the house and go to work or school, Gully hopes.

"We're giving [them] a little extra support and hopefully they'll get themselves into a GED program or school or work," Gully said.  "We want them showing some positive steps while they are on probation."

And that is basically what Gully tells these young people when they start out on probation: this is their chance to turn their lives around.

Offering Offenders a Second Chance

"I say to guys at the counter 'I'm sorry for your trouble, [but] you have an opportunity in the next year or two to make some positive changes in your life, one is attitude and two is behavior," Gully said. 

These offenders can use the probation system as a reason to change where they typically hang out or who they are socializing with.

"[By placing young offenders on probation], you're taking away that thing saying 'I can do whatever I please and nobody is going to stop me,'" Gully said. 

According to Gully, times have changed in the court system compared to years ago when the supervision of offenders on probation basically ended with the close of the workday. 

Operation Alarm Clock is evidence of that shift. 

"Now, once you're in their bedroom, they can't very well be deceitful," Gully said.  "Their life is in front of you."

But, probation officers will only search an offender's room if there is reasonable suspicion to do so and they don't just barge right in; they usually ask a mother or a grandmother, who are the typical parental figures for many of these young men, to accompany them.

"These young men are primarily raised by women," Gully said.  "We become father in some ways [by saying] 'get out and look for work,'" he added.  "It seems that the mothers and grandmothers that I've encountered are pretty happy to have the support."

And Gully hopes that the individuals they are targeting through this program will benefit from the increased support and supervision, too.

"I've always felt that basically one-third of all probationers sail through probation [and] one third fail," Gully said.  "There's about one-third that are right in the middle that, you, as a probation officer, can really make a huge difference in their life," he added.  "Those are the ones you need to spend the time on."

Resources:

To learn more about Operation Alarm Clock, contact Gully at (617) 288-9500 ext. 301