Warwick Police Officer Steven Lombardi, holding the clipboard, and Fernando Comas, a Kent County probation officer, are taking a new path in law enforcement in Warwick, one that is being implemented in only a few communities in the state.
Lombardi and Comas make unannounced visits several times a month to former Adult Correctional Institutions inmates on Friday evenings or Saturdays, when people are more likely to be home, to check that they are abiding by the terms of probation.
No one is home at their first stop of the evening, so they leave their business cards. They are welcomed at another stop by a man who answers their questions earnestly: Do you have a job? How do you spend your days? With whom are you living? They want to know how he is doing and what help he might need. They also try to notice anything in the home that would be a violation of probation. Their goal is to keep him on track.
It can be difficult for an inmate to make the adjustment to getting out of prison on parole, especially after years of confinement. Offenders often return to the community without much support.
Lombardi and Comas believe they are filling a void that Lombardi says was "a huge missed opportunity" until the partnership started. "We don't want the probationer to be unsuccessful," Comas says. And as a police officer in the community policing unit, Lombardi wants the probationer "on our radar screen." He says the home visits "keep them on their toes." Comas says, "We really want to work with them." And they say most are usually pleasant when they visit, and according to Lombardi, "They are trying to do the right thing."
Comas has been a probation officer for over five years. He meets with parolees when they are still at the ACI to introduce himself as their probation officer. Steve Lombardi has been a Warwick police officer for 11 years.
Christine Imbriglio, the Department of Corrections probation supervisor for Kent County, and Warwick Police Chief Stephen McCartney are enthusiastic about the partnership.
McCartney says, "We are trying to get this going statewide, maybe pool several smaller departments." As president of the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association, he says, "I thought about this going back to when the population issue with the ACI came up. I think that this is a positive way" of dealing with the issue of overcrowding.
Imbriglio says their focus is to help the people on parole succeed rather than thinking of them as criminals.
The Department of Corrections has also joined with Pawtucket, Westerly and Providence police departments in the partnership.
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