"Two of my chiefs, Fay Boyd who oversees Chowan, Gates and Perquimans counties and Karen Garriss who oversees Dare County, are 100 miles apart," said Roy Daniels, judicial district manager. "You don’t find that in too many districts. Being a JDM in a district like this, you really rely heavily on your chiefs. They must work independently, because I may not see them for a month because of the geography."

The largest district, geographically-speaking in the state, District 1 includes Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Perquimans and Pasquotank counties. A staff of 46 including four chief probation and parole officers supervise approximately 1,850 offenders in extremely diverse conditions that change as one travels from the western portion of the district to the coast.

"I worked in the Pasquotank office for years before moving to the Dare County office, and even though they are only 50 miles apart, those 50 miles make a big difference," Garriss said.

Probation officers working inland in the district’s western counties including Gates, Chowan, Perquimans and Pasquotank counties must contend with many of the typical problems associated with rural communities, and the area’s close proximity to Virginia adds another interesting twist.

"Being so close to Virginia and a large metropolitan area, we get a lot of spillover drug problems from there," said Cathy Meggs an intensive officer in Pasquotank County. "We have a lot more crime for a small community than people realize."

Along with the proximity to Virginia comes a lot of out-of-state cases. Carla Jones, a probation officer in Gates County, has one of the higher interstate caseloads in the state due to the influx of Virginians into the area. Her caseload of 90 is mostly DWIs and indecent liberty cases. Daniels said another aspect of working in a rural area is the lack of resources and assistance from other law enforcement agencies. For example, he said in Gates County there is often only one sheriff’s deputy working the entire county during the evenings. While the inland counties have the problems from Virginia to worry with, the officers in Camden County have two migrant camps to supervise. Surveillance Officer Jay Winslow said it is a tough job trying to supervise transients. Winslow described the camps as country ghettos with a lot of fighting and stabbings. Further east in Dare and Currituck counties along North Carolina’s Outer

Carla Jones is one of three officers covering Gates County.

Banks, probation officers stay busy with all the tourists who flock to the area on vacation to swim, surf and have some fun. However, that fun often turns into trouble, as a popular saying in the area aptly sums up, "Come on vacation, leave on probation."

Daniels said Dare County adds an extra day to the district court schedule in the summer months just to accommodate the additional cases generated by the out-of-state tourists.

Along with dealing with all the problems the tourists get into, probation officers along the coast also have the local population to deal with - many who work in construction and restaurant jobs along the beach which makes checking up on them a challenge.

Kristie McGrady said she loves working at the beach.

Charles Dozier, an intensive officer in Currituck County, said he can spend all day trying to get to work sites along the beach because the two-lane roads are often clogged with vacationers, people riding bikes and rollerbladers. However, he has to admit that navigating the two-lane roads is easier than driving his four-wheel-drive state vehicle on the beach to check on probationers who live along the 11-mile stretch of the Outer Banks north of Corolla on up to the Virginia state line where there are no roads except for the sand on the beach. "Up here the road you take is the road you make," Daniels said. Despite all the obstacles, however, those who work in District 1 tell you they wouldn’t trade it for the world. "I love it here," said Kristie McGrady, a probation officer in Dare County. "I wouldn’t do this job anywhere except here."