Author: Greg Thomas
A long-time Community Supervision employee has been recognized for her dedication and service by being named the winner of the 2024 Community Supervision Deputy Secretary’s Award. The honor was presented during the recent North Carolina Probation Parole Association training institute in Wilmington.
“It’s all about her leadership,” said Tracy K. Lee, deputy secretary for Community Supervision. “As the Interstate Compact (ICS) manager and deputy compact administrator for North Carolina, Betty Payton continually demonstrates a commitment to our profession. I depend on her work and she and her section do an incredible job.”
Betty Payton has worked for the department for 34 years starting as an office assistant before becoming a probation officer. Later she transferred to the Interstate Compact (ISC) Unit becoming the Interstate Compact Offender Tracking System (ICOTS) Manager and later becoming the Interstate Compact Manager/Deputy Compact Administrator.
ICOTS is a web-based system that facilitates the transfer of supervision for probationers and parolees from one state to another. Each year, the 50 states and 3 territories that comprise the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision (ICAOS) use ICOTS to process approximately 150,000 transfer requests and more than one million compact activities for nearly 102,000 active supervision cases.
As the manager of North Carolina’s Interstate Compact Office, Betty Payton’s section manages all communications for the transfer and movement across state lines of adult offenders who are under community supervision.
“ICAOS has a nationally recognized dashboard that measures a variety of activities like the timeliness and completeness of submissions,” Lee said. “And for the last three to five years, Betty’s section has placed in the 95th percentile or higher. That tells me we’re doing something right and it’s very important we acknowledge that.”
In receiving the award, Payton said it’s a reflection of their efforts. “I am so happy to receive this award because it lets me know that the ISC staff is recognized for our hard work,” she said. “I have a great staff who make my job easier. They are all always willing to assist me and their coworkers. I also have great managers, which is a plus in such a demanding profession,” said Payton.
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