Parole officers in Tennessee are so thorough in their jobs that they even keep track of people after they’re no longer living.

This snarky conclusion arose after a state audit found the state Board of Probation and Parole claimed to be monitoring 82 parolees who were dead. One parolee had died more than 19 years ago. Another, who died in October 2011, was described as “bedridden at home” in five separate reports after he had died. Amazing as it may seem, the auditors concluded that “there is risk that the PPO [probation and parole officer] was not actually verifying the offenders’ placement and simply entering the same information month after month.”

“With that many dead people supposedly being supervised, it makes you wonder how many live people were also not being supervised,” state Senator Brian Kelsey told The Tennessean.

The Board of Probation and Parole, which had an annual budget of $86 million, is responsible for tracking about 60,000 offenders, with each officer tasked with an average caseload of 100. The agency reportedly has dealt with high employee turnover and insufficient resources, along with a lack of proper supervision.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

To Learn More:

Parolees Monitored, But No Longer Alive (by Bobby Allyn, The Tennessean)

Performance Audit: Board of Probation and Parole September 2012 (Board of Probation and Parole) (pdf)