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By LOU HATTER
Rappahannock New* Staff Writer
Diane Moore said she doesn’t understand all the fuss about her winning the Probation and Parole Officer of the Year Award for the Northern Region of Virginia. “I was real shocked, but I feel real good. It makes me real proud after doing this for 12 years -- it makes me feel humble.”
For Mrs. Moore, doing her best just comes naturally ~ it runs in the family, you might say.
Though she’s just 35 years old, her supervisor jokes that she has 30 years experience at the job. Her father, Jack DeBergh, was also a parole officer, and as a little girl Mrs. Moore accompanied her father on his rounds. That was often the way they spent their Sunday afternoons. “You had a better chance of catching the parolees at home,” she explained.
“It’s fantastic, and much deserved,” Chief Parole Officer Mike Fling - her supervisor in the Front Royal office — said of Mrs. Moore’s award. “There is no one any more dedicated. Her father was that way - -and she picked up where he left off.” Mr. Fling should know -- Jack DeBergh was the chief parole officer when he started, and Mr. DeBergh was his training officer.
For the Front Royal office, where Mrs. Moore works, the award is the second in two years. J. Michael Spory, another officer there, went on to win the state award in 1988.
That is the next step for Mrs. Moore, who will now compete against the other three regional winners. They must appear before a review panel in Richmond for an interview, and the state winner will be announced at the Virginia Probation and Parole Association conference in Falls Church at the end of May.
Probation and parole officers work with the state Department of Corrections. Their job is the supervision of any convicted criminal placed on probation in lieu of jail by a court, as well as of anyone released from prison by the Department of Corrections into its supervised parole program.
The officers also prepare background reports, called pre-sentence reports, for offenders found guilty and due to be sentenced by a judge. Those reports are lengthy and through background investigations, including interviews with the offender and his family, friends and employer, verification of all factual information, such as military service record and schooling, and a compilation of any prior criminal record. The pre-sentence report is often a major consideration in the judge’s disposition of a case.
A similar study is done on all probationers and parolees when they are placed under the supervision of a probation and parole officer. When the report is finished, Mrs. Moore
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