Do Office Reviews in the Federal Probation and Pretrial Services System Do What They Were Intended to Do? Not Yet

The Probation and Pretrial Services Office (PPSO) within the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) has long been charged with providing oversight for the work of the probation officers in each of the United States district courts. The authors analyze data from 70 office reviews conducted between 2017 and 2019, examining the nature of the relationship between district-level outcomes (post-conviction revocation, post-conviction rearrests, pretrial release recommendations, pretrial release rates, pretrial failure to appear, pretrial rearrest, pretrial violation, and pretrial revocation rates) and the office review items and overall office review compliance scores.