Boston Globe investigative report: An agency where patronage is job one

If nothing else, an object lesson in the need for oversight and how the lack of
same draws crooks like maple syrup on the floor draws ants and roaches.

PATRONAGE IN THE PROBATION DEPARTMENT
The Boston Globe
May 23, 2010

An agency where patronage is job one

The state Probation Department once set the standard for the nation in rehabilitating
criminals. But nine years ago the Legislature freed it from meaningful oversight,
and the results were predictable: budgets soared, and the welcome mat was out for
hundreds of job seekers with political juice.

--snip--

After 12 years in charge, Jack O’Brien has transformed the Probation Department from a national pioneer of better ways to rehabilitate criminals into an organization that functions more like a private employment agency for the well connected, the Spotlight Team has found.

O’Brien’s agency now employs at least 250 friends, relatives, and financial backers of politicians and top court officials, the Spotlight review found, including children of US Representative William D. Delahunt, former mayor Raymond L. Flynn of Boston, and former Senate president William M. Bulger. The agency has also hired House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo’s godson, who, at 28, is now the youngest chief probation officer in Massachusetts.

O’Brien has taken care of friends, too, finding jobs for the children of his Boston College football teammate, for a friend who ran a fur shop, for a former plasterer friendly with Cahill, and promoting two probation officers who moonlight as bartenders at a Northampton pizza joint frequented by one of his top deputies. Along the way, O’Brien’s family has also benefited.

--snip--

Much more at:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/05/23/at_the_probation_department_patronage_is_job_one/

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This is a TEN PAGE investigative report in the Globe. Total corruption. Boatloads of
state reps in cahoots, paying to get anyone who handed them cash a cushy job with
the Probation Department.

Its been so long since I've seen real investigative reporting with IMMEDIATE legislative
impact that I am still shaking my head in disbelief. The main crook here resigned IMMEDIATELY.
The state legislature is in total turmoil.

If I had any hope left for this corrupt country and this corrupt state, I would feel good about this.

are how things get done. Good for the Globe for exposing this criminal enterprise.

i wonder why just now the globe decided to take a look?

all these crooks get purged from the system and that, maybe, they restore the probation system.

As I said in my OP, its a corrupt state. But, what do you want me to do? Cheer for the bad guys?

We kicked around why the Globe did this, and couldn't come up with a political reason. The gov
has been fighting the lack of this oversight. The only candidate it hits is losing anyway.
Sure a lot of politicos get hurt; but so what?