Reference

State of Community Supervision: the numbers, with sources

What officers actually spend their week on, what supervision failure costs, what pretrial detention costs a county, and what agencies measured when they moved supervision onto the phone. Every figure names its source. Updated September 2026.

This page exists so that anyone writing about community supervision, arguing a budget, or answering a question has numbers they can check. Two kinds of figures appear here. External research is named by publisher and year. Agency results are measurements reported by agencies using RePath; those agencies are described by type and state until each one clears the use of its name. Nothing on this page is a projection unless it says so.

How to cite this page: eHawk, Inc., State of Community Supervision, September 2026, ehawksolutions.com/state-of-community-supervision.

Officers spend most of their week on paperwork, not people

The problem exists before any vendor walks in. These are the measurements.

Independent time study
72.7%

of officer time goes to administrative and system work

Only 18.7% went to direct supervision of people. A county corrections department ran the study on its own officers in December 2025, before it used RePath.

Independent time study
9.2 hrs

a week per officer on database entry alone

Same study. Case management data entry was the single largest block of the week.

Measured on RePath
8 to 10 hrs

a week back per officer, across agencies

The figure RePath customers report after moving check-ins, reminders, messaging and visit notes onto the phone. Measured from platform activity and agency time studies, multiple agencies.

Measured on RePath
10.8 hrs

per officer per week in a statewide pilot

A state department of corrections ran a roughly 1,000-person pilot across three regions with 13 officers and measured the time returned. The largest single sample we hold.

Measured on RePath
11,927 hrs

returned in six months at a state juvenile justice agency

About eleven and a half full-time positions of capacity. The same agency saved more than 1,600 hours on case notes alone in a single year.

Projected from a pilot
~24,000 hrs

a year statewide, about 13 positions

A state department of corrections measured 765 officer hours back in a 15-week pilot across three offices (560 enrolled), then scaled it to all 19 offices. They funded the statewide contract from vacant positions.

What supervision failure costs the public

National research on what happens when supervision does not hold.

CSG Justice Center
$9.3B

a year spent incarcerating people for supervision violations

Council of State Governments Justice Center, Confined and Costly. This is the cost of violations, not the size of any market.

CSG Justice Center
1 in 4

state prison beds is filled by a supervision violation, not a new crime

Technical violations alone, meaning missed appointments, failed tests and similar rule breaks, cost states about $2.8 billion a year. Same report.

CSG Justice Center
$41,450

per recidivism event

The system cost of one person returning, 2023 figure. State-by-state values are on the CSG cost calculator.

Science Advances, 2025
$2,850

per missed court date, against about $10 to prevent one

A randomized trial in Santa Clara County found automated reminders cut missed-court warrants by about 20%. The ratio is the argument.

Bureau of Justice Statistics
$300B

a year spent on the US justice system

National total across police, courts and corrections. Supervision is the cheapest part of it and carries the most people.

Arkansas Community Corrections, 2021
29 to 30%

fewer missed supervision appointments with text reminders

Randomized trial. Reminders work on appointments the same way they work on court dates.

What pretrial detention costs a county, and what changes

Measured by Missouri agencies using RePath as the non-monetary release condition.

A large Missouri county
60%+

fewer pretrial jail days in year one

About 150,000 jail days and $3.9 million. On any given day, about 400 fewer people held. The program grew from 67 people in January 2020 to more than 5,400 by 2026.

A large Missouri county
31%

drop in what the state reimburses the county for pretrial detention

From an average of $4.66 million a year before RePath (FY17 to FY19) to $3.21 million with it (FY21 to FY26).

A large Missouri county
24%, 32%, 36%

recidivism down three years running

Reported by the county, 2019 to 2022.

Missouri, statewide comparison
58%

more per resident billed to the state for pretrial detention by counties that do not use RePath

Compared with counties that do. Missouri has more than 10,000 people on RePath across 22 judicial circuits, including four of the state's five largest counties.

A rural Missouri circuit
64 to 33

people in a jail built for 55

After building its pretrial program around RePath when bond reform forced releases it had no money to supervise. 95% of the pretrial population is on RePath; the rest are in residential treatment without a phone.

A rural Missouri circuit
4%

of people on RePath were rearrested

Reported by the circuit. One administrator manages about 70 people at a time.

Ankle monitors versus the phone the person already carries

The cost comparison agencies make when they choose.

RePath commercial reference
1/100th

the cost of a day in jail

Incarceration runs $96 to $110 a day in the materials we use, against under a dollar a day for RePath. The real ratio is closer to 1 in 130; 1 in 100 is the conservative version.

RePath commercial reference
1/5th

the cost of an ankle monitor

Priced per officer, not per participant. The participant pays nothing.

A rural Ohio county
1 phone

lost in the life of the program, against $2,500 per lost ankle monitor

The county's own replacement cost for a monitor. Reported by its chief probation officer, 2025.

A Louisiana probation and parole district
$20,000

in monitor spend avoided on 200 supervision slots

Alongside about 965 officer hours returned, measured from platform activity.

A rural Missouri circuit
$0

what the participant pays for the phone they already carry

"This is our only way to have a program. People can't afford ankle monitors." A program that exists because the phone costs the participant nothing.

An Indiana county
$100K to $15K

a year in supervision technology spend

Before and after, in the county's own words.

Training officers works only if the skills get used

The research behind supervision quality, and the gap it points at.

Chadwick, DeWolf and Serin, 2015
Measurable

reduction in reoffending when officers are trained in core correctional practices

Meta-analysis. The training investment agencies make is justified by the evidence.

Justice Quarterly, 2022
25 studies

say the effect holds only when officers actually use the skills in real conversations

Meta-analysis. Almost no agency measures whether the skills show up in practice.

A state corrections leader, 2026
1 file

per officer per month is what supervisor quality review usually covers

The sample is small, late, and often chosen by the officer being reviewed. That is the gap RePath Intelligence was built to close.

What agencies measured once supervision moved to the phone

Adoption and outcomes, reported by the agencies.

A state department of corrections
86%

of officers recommended a statewide contract after the pilot

Voluntary adoption in the pilot was 70%. In the follow-up survey a year later, 83 to 100% of officers, depending on the district, said keep it.

Missouri, statewide
17,000+

compliance reports a year, with one complaint on record

Volume with almost no friction is the point. 37 of Missouri's 46 circuits and more than 130 agencies have put people on RePath.

A state juvenile justice agency
90.7%

of cases closed successfully across 2,275 closures

January 2023 to July 2026. Successful closures rose from 86% to 92% over three years while closures to jail fell from 14% to 6%.

A state juvenile services agency
0 of 16

court hearings missed in the pilot

About 110 youth across six judicial districts. 14% of youth had their supervision level reduced because their compliance earned it. The best-performing site averaged 85% compliance against a 70% baseline.

A Kansas drug court
90%

of participants held 75% compliance or better

An Indiana recovery court reports 96% of participants stayed compliant. A Tennessee recovery court saw self-check compliance rise 50%.

Formal RFP reference check, 2026
5 of 5

in every category from five customers across three states

Missouri, Kansas and Texas, signed reference forms. One of the five had lost RePath to a funding cut and come back.

The positions agencies cannot fill

Vacancy counts agencies have told us, which is where the money for supervision technology usually comes from.

A state department of corrections
~30

vacant officer positions when it signed

The pilot math showed about 13 positions of capacity coming back, so the state removed vacant positions and used that salary line. No new appropriation. Their account of how they funded it.

A state juvenile justice agency
~150

vacancies carried while returning nearly 12,000 officer hours in six months

Returned capacity absorbs the work vacancies were supposed to cover.

RePath
125+

agencies, 50,000+ people supervised

The scale behind every measurement on this page.

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