ABSTRACT
The setting for the data collection must be described, since it may have played a role in how probationers with mental health illness (PMIs) experienced probation with their Probationary Officers, and it offered additional opportunities for observing probation staff as they went about their duties. The interview room or space assigned for all data-collection sessions at the North County Probation System in Newtown was a private space with a door, which ensured that all conversations would remain confidential. The self-reported mental health challenges among the group of PMIs included mood and bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and other co-occurring medical health conditions. Mental health counseling and substance abuse treatment encouraged the six probationers to think differently about the problems they had and were experiencing. Preventing slacking off and slipping up for the PMI meant following the rules of the law to avoid more jail time, which was reinforced through the behavioral conditioning that probation offered him.
