Court Opinion

ID: 9455671
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:29:24.688516+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:41.315148
License: Public Domain

LUMBARD, Chief Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the result reached by Judge Hays in this case of first impression in this Circuit. I do so because I believe that the confines within which the parole portion of the criminal justice system operates allow no other practical result.
Ideally, the parole officer in our system serves a dual function.- First, he should counsel the paroled prisoner and assist him in the specialized and difficult task of rehabilitation. Second, he should of course be familiar with the activities of parolees within his ambit of responsibility so that they may be assisted to abide by the conditions of parole, and if they fail to do so, he can in suitable cases recommend revocation of the parole status. To discharge these functions effectively requires highly subjective knowledge of each parolee committed to the parole officer’s supervision. As with other procedures in the correctional segment of the criminal justice system, the parole offices are overworked and inadequately funded.1
*1165The result is that both the rehabilitative and protective functions suffer from the inattention to individual parolees which must follow from a heavy caseload. In the present case, where such facts as we have indicate that Herbert Sperling had no desire to be successfully rehabilitated, we see the effect which this neglect has on the parole officer’s function as a firm supervisor and protector of society. Federal parole officers must rely on city and state law enforcement officials to provide them with information of the most important kind concerning the conduct of parolees. There can be no doubt that if Sperling’s parole officer had chanced to see Sperling and his companion Sisea transferring a manila envelope at the corner of 48th Street and Third Avenue at 4:45 A.M. he would have been entirely justified in inquiring what Sperling was up to, and, if unsatisfied with the reply, in conducting a search.
I would be willing, as Judge Kaufman suggests, to test the constitutional reasonableness of searches of parolees conducted by or at the direction of parole officers under less stringent standards than those applied to policemen searching the general citizenry. However, I do not believe that the time for such an approach has come. To apply the exclusionary rule in the context of parole revocation hearings at the present time would merely exacerbate the problems discussed above; to import fourth amendment suppression law into this process would in fact be counterproductive. Parole officers would be forced to spend more of their time personally gathering admissible proof concerning those parolees who cannot or will not accept rehabilitation. Time devoted to such field work necessarily detracts from time available to encourage those parolees with a sincere desire to avoid the all-too-familiar cycle of recidivism.' An even greater potential loss would be in the time available to counsel and supervise — particularly in the early months— those who leave confinement with the question of rehabilitation in real doubt.
*1166Although I am somewhat skeptical about the effectiveness of “other remedies” to deter police misconduct, I must agree with Judge Hays that a double application of the exclusionary rule is not warranted at the present time. I draw this conclusion by balancing the interests of all parolees in securing administration of the parole system which is as nearly consonant with its dual goals as is possible at present levels of staffing and funding against the interest of individual parolees like Sperling in not being subjected to a search by local police officers which the government seems to concede was unconstitutional under traditional standards. The time may come when the balance will shift. Proof of widespread police harassment of parolees would cause such a shift since the exclusionary rule is a deterrent which should be used when the need for deterrence is clearly shown. But on the facts of the present situation, I am unwilling to strike a balance which could achieve little, other than a distortion of the priorities of the parole system.

. See President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Task Force Report: Corrections, 6, 70, 97 (1967) (hereinafter “Task Force Report”). The Task Force Report states that in the supervision of convicted felons who were either paroled or placed on probation, “the number of probation and parole officers needed in 1965 was three times the number then employed. [Number employed — 5,081; number needed— 15,600.] This increase would reduce caseloads from their present high levels *1165[see Task Force Report, pp. 98-99, Figure 1, indicating that two-thirds of the convicted felons on probation were supervised by probation officers whose caseload exceeded 100 probationers] * * * to an average of 35 per officer, and in addition would provide sufficient officers to perform essential presentence investigations.” Id. at 97.
See Dawson, Sentencing: The Decision as to Type, Length, and Conditions of Sentence 317-338 (1969). Professor Dawson notes the obvious fact that parole supervision objectives often conflict with each other, and that this is “particularly likely with respect to the control and treatment objectives.” Id., 317. Later, discussing the intensity of parole supervision, Professor Dawson states that the
“objectives actually pursued in parole supervision depend in part upon the amount of time the parole officer has to supervise a parolee. Presumably, as available time increases, greater emphasis can be placed on treatment instead of control and more use can be made of supervision techniques other than the routine office interview. Correctional literature would suggest that the intensity of parole supervision, normally expressed in terms of the size of the caseload of each parole officer, is the major problem in current parole supervision.”
Id. at 332. See also Adams, Some Findings from Correctional Caseload Research, 31 Federal Probation 48 (December 1967).
In an introduction to the 1968 edition of his Sourcebook on Probation, Parole and Pardons, Professor Charles L. Newman, head of the Center for Law Enforcement and Corrections at The Pennsylvania State University, states:
“Many problems still remain unsolved, not least among which is the continuing deficit of adequate numbers of personnel with the appropriate educational preparation and training to carry out the mission of the administration of justice. Hopefully, the work of the Joint Commission on Correctional Manpower and Training will provide some insights on solving the manpower problem in corrections. Adequate funding continues to be a problem, even though the total dollar appropriation to the correctional field increased remarkably in the past decade.”
Newman, Sourcebook on Probation, Parole and Pardons, viii (1968).