Ron Kokinda is an expert in his field.

He has overseen the supervision of thousands of offenders throughout his 34-year career in Carbon County law enforcement and is one of the longest-tenured chief probation officers in the state.His office is filled with a mixture of decades of memories and mementos from friends, family and an extensive career that has seen drastically changing protocols, increased officer safety and an ever-growing number of offenders in need of supervision.But after much consideration, the Luzerne County resident has decided that 2016 is going to be his year of change.On June 3, after 26 years as the chief adult probation officer for the Carbon County Adult Probation office, Kokinda will close a chapter of his life as he retires.“It’s been on my mind for a while,” he said recently, noting that he plans to take the summer off before pursuing other opportunities, including teaching criminal justice courses. “I have had a satisfying career.”Kokinda began his time in law enforcement in 1982 but had an interest in the field since high school.A graduate of Penn State University with a degree in administration of justice, he took a part-time job at the Carbon County prison, a position he held for four years.He transferred to the county sheriff’s office and stayed there for six months before taking a position under then chief adult probation officer Anthony Harvilla in 1987.Two years later, in September 1989, after Harvilla took a job on the federal law enforcement level, Kokinda was appointed to lead the department.Since then, he has worked to make Carbon County probation officers safer, provide the court with alternatives to incarceration and watch a drug epidemic take hold of younger and younger people.Changing worldIn the first decade of his career, Kokinda said officer safety wasn’t something the courts thought about because offenders were locals and officers typically knew who they were dealing with.“When I first started here, we went into the field in a suit and tie,” Kokinda said, pointing to his administrative attire he wears today. “We had nothing to keep us safe.”But in the 1990s, a study was done on the victimization of officers in the field and the priorities of probation departments changed drastically.“Today, we have four caged vehicles with radios, and officers have duty belts,” he said. “They carry a Glock .40 firearm, portable radios, handcuffs, an expandable baton and wear body armor.”The reason for this is because of changing demographics, the shift in the makeup of offenders and the explosion of caseloads the officers handle on average.“We have a lot of influx coming in from outside the county,” Kokinda said, noting that the officers who oversee offenders have caseloads averaging 229 per officer. “Some of them are residents, some transients. Because of this, caseload size is no longer manageable.”Kokinda said that his office, which includes eight probation officers who go out into the field and one who works exclusively on investigations for court pre-sentences, Gagnon hearings and sentencing guidelines, set a record last year for the number of criminal case filings set in the county.In 2015, Carbon County’s Adult Probation office filed 1,550 criminal case filings, shattering the 2014 record of 1,300.“Crime is increasing,” he said. One major factor that his office formerly saw on a lesser scale was drug addicts. “There is an opioid problem in the county and everywhere … and it seems when we interview these people, everyone is doing it.”AccomplishmentsBesides facing challenges in his career, Kokinda touts a number of accomplishments that has helped shape county probation.In 1996, Carbon County was one of the first counties in the state to start pretrial services, which allows the probation office to evaluate cases and recommend if a defendant should be released on recognizance or unsecured bail or if the bond should be altered; as well as recommend what conditions of bail would be appropriate and provides supervision of the defendants released on bail.“Pretrial services provided another alternative to incarceration,” Kokinda said, adding that the services have become popular with counties to try to divert offenders out of prison.Shortly after, Carbon was also one of only 13 counties to be awarded a Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency grant to begin the intermediate punishment program, which is electronic monitoring.“I am proud that we were one of just 13 counties,” Kokinda said. “We were very fortunate to get one.”Today, the department has 15 electronic monitoring units that can be used if the courts believe an offender would benefit.In addition, Kokinda has helped right a countless number of grants for various things, including helping Harvilla secure a grant to cover the cost for exploring if a re-entry program was possible in Carbon County. The team of agencies tasked to complete this plan has worked on the initiative since September.A supporting castWhen asked what he will miss most, Kokinda smiled and said, “My staff.”“I have a great staff,” he said. “You couldn’t accomplish what we accomplished without having a staff dedicated to their profession.”He thanked the courts for believing in his ability when they chose him to lead the department, the boards of commissioners that worked with him through the years and the court-related offices and county agencies that he had contact for the daily operations.Kokinda also recognized the support he received from his family, especially his wife, Gwyn, throughout his career and thanked her for being there for him over the years.“I hope that the people will remember me as a hardworking individual who gave 100 percent to the courts and the county,” he said.The courts will now be tasked with finding and appointing a person to fill Kokinda’s seat.