The state now has fewer people to monitor sex offenders, drug dealers and other felons walking the streets on probation. The Department of Corrections is laying off 66 probation officers to save money. The lay offs are raising concerns about public safety.

Sixty-six state probation officers are joining the ranks of the unemployed. The Department of Corrections let the officers go, just one day after lawmakers passed a budget deficit package. Matt Puckett, a spokesman for the Florida Police Benevolent Association says having fewer probation officers could affect public safety.

“These are the guys out there doing the work. They’re checking on the offenders and making sure they’re not doing drugs, going to work, not doing other crimes.”

Before the cuts each probation officer was responsible for 84 felons.

“For those probation officers lucky enough to have kept their jobs, they’ll now have a much larger case load.”

The remaining 22-hundred officers will now have to take on 9 extra cases. Gretl Plesinger of the Department of Corrections says there simply wasn’t anything else left to cut.

“Unfortunately we are staff intensive, so when it gets down to it we still have to make cuts to people. We are looking at other areas, chaplains, education, teachers, law clerks and we are looking at other areas. We anticipate this could impact every section of the department.”

Senate Minority leader Al Lawson wants the governor to call lawmakers back to Tallahassee.

“That 66 probation officers are going to be laid off is unacceptable.”

Lawson says tax loopholes like those on bottled water and dry-cleaning should be eliminated to restore the positions.

Most of the probation officers who lost their jobs had been with the department for less than a year.