Georgia leads the nation in the ratio of people who are on probation or parole.

Governor Nathan Deal's criminal justice reform effort aims at lowering those being supervised. His latest wrinkle is a new state agency that merges oversight of parolees and probationers - the Department of Community Supervision.

Raynard Nickels is one of 24 new officers in Georgia’s newest department. A month ago he graduated from the first-of-its-kind class that combines parole and probation skills.

“I'm just watching Kevin to see how he reacts with the offender... in general how he carries himself.”

He's referring to Kevin Phillips, a parole officer who Nickels is shadowing.

Raynard sits in the passenger seat while Kevin drives to the home of a parolee.

"It's all the way to the end here," said Phillips slowing his car. "That's it right there.”

It’s a surprise check-in on one of Officer Phillips’ cases.

They approach a house. A shirtless Walter Thurman answers. Once inside, Officer Phillips asks about his job and then wants to know how his drug treatment is going.

Thurman is on parole after serving time for an assault charge. A few months back Officer Phillips caught him with marijuana and could have sent him back to prison. Instead he suggested Thurman kick the habit.

“I felt like Mr. Thurman had not had an opportunity prior to this...and gave him that opportunity to addresses those violations,” Phillips said.

"He gave me another chance, another opportunity to get myself together," said Thurman, who has been in treatment for three months.

That’s what the new Community Supervision Department hopes to accomplish. Gov. Nathan Deal called for the creation of this merged department last January.

“There has been a distinct sea change over the last three to five years in the mentality in the way we do business,"said Bert Flewellen, spokesman for the new agency and, himself, a veteran of community supervision.

Gov. Deal appointed Michael Nail to be it’s first commissioner. Nail had led the state’s parole effort.

“Literally, the silos and the fragmentation is going to be gone," Nail said.

But critics say that the creation of a vast new department misses the point. Catherine Bernard is a defense attorney who takes case across Georgia.

Bernard believed a single department of supervision puts too much power in the hands of one agency.

“We've skipped right over the part about determining if these are people who need to be on state supervision in the first place,” Bernard said.

Cedric Alexander - DeKalb County’s Public Safety Director - is one of ten people in the nation on President Obama’s Task Force on Policing in the 21st Century. He is keeping an eye on the merger.

“This will be something that we can pay close attention to ... and follow the data and study the data and see what the outcomes will be," Alexander said.

Officer Raynard Nickels knows there will be scrutiny of the Community Supervision department

“Were the first class. we want to let everyone know that the training is up to snuff," Nickels said.

And it’s an evolution. Next summer the consolidation will continue when officers will begin to supervise juvenile offenders.

Tags: Probation, parole, probation department, parole division, Department of Community Supervision, crime, Arrondale State Prison