The growing opinion that the criminal justice system itself no longer represents a credible response to the problem of crime has had a particularly noticeable impact on probation and parole. The past 20 years have experienced a marked devaluation of traditional probation and parole supervision. The language of the new penology focuses on risk management, the allocation of resources, and the management of internal system processes. The movement toward a surveillance-based, control model of supervision partly represents an extension of traditional probation and parole. However, the shift rests on a deep cynicism about the capacity of any model or technique to change offender behavior. This goal does not and will not provide a sufficiently compelling narrative that something meaningful is being done about the problem of crime. Thus, the most pressing problem facing probation and parole administrators today is the need to develop a plausible narrative of community-based supervision. This narrative must convey in both discourse and practice how the risk that offenders present can be addressed credibly outside prison walls. The elements of such a narrative must include a crime causes theory, a measurement of its degree, and a set of practices that appear capable of controlling it. The new narrative must rest on current knowledge regarding offender criminality; current research suggests that probation and parole officers should target the criminogenic needs of high-risk offenders.