Excessive workloads are still an ongoing problem. They were already an issue when I started my career in 1999.
The workload of parole officers at the institutions is calculated based on numbers of offenders per officer, and that number has constantly risen over the years. When ratios are established, they very often aren't complied with.
Officers outside the community, however, have to prepare various reports and have a minimum number of contacts with offenders. The workload in the community is measured using a tool that, in a way, times the work that parole officers do.
So, yes, this is an extremely important issue for us. Not only are the number of cases and frequency of contacts increasing, but the cases are also increasingly serious. In addition, the employer, the Correctional Service of Canada, asks us to consider increasing numbers of factors specific to each case, such as mental health or ethnicity, for example. So there are a lot of variables that have to be taken into consideration and that encumber reports, interactions and interventions.