Kotzebue Probation Office

You can support your loved ones at Kotzebue Probation Office on InmateAid, if you have any immediate questions contact the facility directly at 907-442-2586.

KOTZEBUE PROBATION OFFICE

The Kotzebue Probation Office is located in the Inupiat Village of Kotzebue 50 miles north of the Arctic Circle. One full time Probation/Parole Officer and a Criminal Justice Tech staff the Office. It is responsible for the supervision of a caseload of felony offenders spread out over a 38,000 square mile area. Supervision requires the Probation Officer to travel by small aircraft to each of the eleven remote villages surrounding the Kotzebue area. Villages supervised through the Kotzebue office are Ambler, Buckland, Deering, Kiana, Kivalina, Kobuk, Noatak, Noorvik, Selawik, and Shungnak and are only accessible by small airplane or boat or snowmachine. Upon arrival in the village travel may continue by snow machine or all-terrain vehicle.

While the Superior Court is located in Kotzebue, the Superior Court Judge travels to remote sites in the region where trails and sentencings are conducted in local school and recreational areas. These proceedings allow local residents to take part in the judicial process and allow Village Elders and Tribal Councils to make recommendations to the Court.

PROBATION AND PAROLE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

• Develop and maintain public safety through supervision standards in conjunction with the Regional Chief Probation Officers. Provide for public safety through supervision of adult felons in Probation and Parole jurisdiction.
• Standardize Probation Officer training and the delivery of probation/parole services throughout the state.
• Establish uniform risk management tools for general offenders and sex offenders.
• Increase supervision of high-risk sex offenders. Continue to develop the Interagency Sex Offender Working Group to improve interagency coordination, policy, practices and other methods for managing sex offender risk to victims and potential victims.
• Maintain and enhance communications with the criminal justice system throughout the state.
• Research and develop alternatives to incarceration while providing protection for the public. Identify and implement intermediate sanctions programs statewide.
• Continue to explore the application of neighborhood-based supervision/community policing system.
• Expand the use of minimum banks and 1-900 telephone numbers for low-risk probation and parole clients.
• Provide supervision to offenders to assist them in dealing with problems that may have led to their arrests and convictions.
• Improve officer safety and increase specialized training.
• Increase offender accountability to victim and the community by implementing victim impact classes for offenders across the state; developing a pool of interagency facilitators and speakers to increase information, resources and support for victims; and increase in offender restitution/fine collection and community work service hours.
• Improve victim services in the Division of Probation and Parole by a) increased community education programs on victim services; b) identification of current victim services; and c) development of materials, forms, and policy changes as needed to insure they are more victim sensitive.
• Preserve and enhance agricultural assets through farm rehabilitative programs.
• Provide adult basic educational and life skills to offender population.
• Provide substance abuse education/counseling to offender population.