Parole officers and probation officers play a role in criminal justice systems by supervising offenders who have been released from incarceration and, often, in recommending sentencing in courts of law.

Contents 1 Probation and parole in the United States 2 Presentence investigation 3 Probation officers in England and Wales 4 Probation and parole officers in Australia 5 Probation in Malta 6 Parole officers in Canada 7 External links 8 References

[edit] Probation and parole in the United States

In the United States, there can be probation officers on the city, county, state, or federal level – wherever there is a court of competent jurisdiction. Since the abolishment of parole in the federal system in 1984, there are essentially no parole officers on the federal level in the United States. However, there is a small and decreasing number of parolees still being supervised that were sentenced before 1984, or court-martialed military service personnel and U.S. probation officers serve as parole officers in that capacity. Most jurisdictions require officers to have a four year college degree, and prefer a graduate degree for full consideration for probation officer positions on the federal level.

Generally, probation officers investigate and supervise defendants who have not yet been sentenced to a term of incarceration. Transversely, parole officers supervise offenders released from incarceration after a review and consideration of a warden, parole board or other parole authority. Parolees are essentially serving the remainder of their incarceration sentence in the community. However, some jurisdictions are modifying or abolishing the practice of parole and giving post-release supervision obligations to a community corrections agent, generically referred to as a probation officer. Still some others are expanding the duties to include post incarceration supervision under special sentencing such as Megan's Law offenses, civil commitments, and violent offenders. These cases involve persons who have completed their incarceration, but must be supervised under the special sentence for three years, or even life supervision as in the case with Community Supervision for Life sentencing for sex offenders. Due to the hightened danger to the public, these cases are supervised by parole officers rather than probation officers since parole officers are more commonly trained in police academies and carry firearms. Typically, probation and parole officers do not wear a uniform, but simply dress in business or casual attire. probation officers are usually issued a badge or some other form of credentials and, in some cases, may carry concealed weapons or pepper spray for self protection or serve arrest warrants. Parole officers, in many jurisdictions, are issued a badge, credentials, and firearm, and often have full police powers. Probation and parole officers who have law enforcement powers, are technically classified as peace officers, and if so, they must attend a police academy as part of their training and certification.

Probation agencies have a loosely based paramilitary^{[citation needed]} command structure and are usually headed by a Chief Probation Officer or Director. The chain-of-command usually flows to Deputy Chief or Assistant Director, then to Supervisor or Senior Probation Officer, then to the line probation officer. Some parole and probation officers supervise general caseloads with offenders who are convicted of a variety of offenses. Others hold specialist positions, and work with specific groups of offenders such as sex offenders, offenders sentenced to electronic monitoring (house arrest) or GPS monitoring, and cases with severe mental health, substance abuse, and violent histories.

A probation officer can perform any function assigned to him or her by the court. Their most common duties are to supervise offenders placed on supervision, and to investigate offender's personal and criminal history for the Court prior to sentencing. Probation and parole officers are required to possess excellent oral and written communication skills and a broad knowledge of the criminal justice system and the roles, relationships, and responsibilities distributed among the courts, the parole authority, the Bureau of Prisons or Department of Corrections and local jails, other police, substance abuse counseling and social services agencies, applicable case law, sentencing guidelines (if applicable) and the prosecutor. Additionally, they must have an ability to work with an extremely diverse population and wide variety of government agencies and community organizations and accept the potential hazards of working closely with a criminal population.

In some states and localities, probation departments have a specialized officer position known as the surveillance officer. These officers have full probation officer authority, are sometimes peace officers, with arrest authority, and are badged and occasionally armed. The purpose of a Surveillance officer is generally to serve as the eyes and ears of a probation team on specialized caseloads, performing mostly field work, including random home and work visits, overt and covert surveillance, and performing arrests and searches; whereas the probation officer does much of his/her work in the office. Surveillance officers usually attend the same training academy and generally only require a two-year degree or high school diploma with public safety experience.

[edit] Presentence investigation

Probation officers who prepare presentence reports must be especially skilled in gathering, organizing, and analyzing information. In the report and accompanying sentencing recommendation, the probation officer must assess the probability of risk to the community in the form of future criminal behavior, the harm the offense caused and the need for restitution, any profit the defendant received from the crime, and the defendant's ability to pay sanctions such as a fine, restitution or cost. The officer must identify the defendant's need for treatment to correct characteristics, conditions, or behavioral patterns that limit motivation or ability to obey the law and must assess the availability and suitability of rehabilitative programs. The preparation of presentence reports is critical not only to the individual offender and those directly affected by the offense, but to the systematic administration of criminal justice.

In the U.S, pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974, a copy of the presentence report must be provided to each offender, or their counsel, before sentencing and, depending on the jurisdiction, must provide both counsels with a copy of the sentencing guidelines (if applicable) and be able to explain the calculations, resolve disagreements and noted objections to the Court. After sentencing, the presentence writer should provide the offender with a written explanation of his or her conditions of supervision. In addition, the probation officer should forward a copy of the presentence report to the incarceration agency to be used in classification of the inmate to ensure proper placement of the inmate and a better utilization of prison programs and resources.

[edit] Probation officers in England and Wales

The National Probation Service is charged with supervising offenders and compiling relevant data regarding offender supervision and its modern form was set out in April 2001 by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act. However, it has existed since the Probation of Offenders Act of 1907, and the practice of placing offenders on probation was already routinely undertaken in the London Police Courts by voluntary organizations such as the London Police Court Mission – later known as the Rainer Foundation – as early as 1876. These earlier probation services provided the inspiration for similar ideas in the humane treatment and supervision of offenders throughout the British Empire and also in former colonies of Britain as missionaries and members of the British criminal justice system traveled the globe.

In modern times the duties of probation officers mirror the duties of their US counterparts with some notable exceptions. There is no distinction made between probation and parole officers. Probation officers make regular recommendations to sentencers regarding an offender's progress and potential to contribute to the community after release although recent legislation creating new orders such as the Drug Treatment and Testing Order have introduced U.S. style reporting to the English Courts for the first time. Additionally, probation officers will supervise a Restorative Justice plan that provides the victim of a crime an opportunity to address the impact of the crime to the offenders. In England and Wales some attempts have been made to follow the United States and Canada style corrections services but this has sometimes led to poor or inappropriate implementation of politically expedient ideas for changes in the supervision of offenders that do not fit easily with the stable and somewhat conservative criminal justice system in England and Wales. Probation officers are not law enforcement officers and do not have law enforcement powers.

[edit] Probation and parole officers in Australia

Probation and parole officers in Australia serve an active role in recommending community based supervision to Magistrates/Judges. They also make recommendations to parole boards to determine whether a prisoner should be granted parole. Probation officers are expected to not only supervise an offender while he/she performs community service, but to also develop the community service plans themselves.

[edit] Probation in Malta

Malta has its very own Probation Services that form part of the Department of Correctional Services within the Ministry of Justice & Home Affairs. The Probation Services has been in existence since 1957 and the first ever Probation Order was granted in 1961. There is no Parole as yet in Malta, however this has become a favorite topic of discussion with some local politicians. The Maltese Probation Services gives services both at the pre-sentencing and post sentencing stages in accordance to the Probation Act (Chap. 446, Laws of Malta). Services include Probation Order, Suspended Sentence Supervision Order, Community service order, Combination Order, Provisional Order of Supervision, Pre Sentencing Report, & Social Inquiry Report.

[edit] Parole officers in Canada

Parole officers in Canada play a critical role at both the institutional and community environment. Their primary function is to assess risk and manage the intervention process with offenders throughout their sentence. They are the first line of defense when administering the Correctional Services of Canada's obligations towards public safety.

Once the offender has entered the federal correctional system, parole officers assess the needs of offenders such as programming and security risks are identified and subsequently matched with selected institutional services such as programs. This includes identifying the factors contributing to criminal behavior, develop intervention plans to address them, and help offenders undertake and complete those intervention plans.

At the institutional level, parole officers make recommendations concerning offender transfers, temporary absences, and other forms of conditional release, including parole release as part of reintegrating offenders into society. Parole officers work as part of a team, which includes the offender, correctional officer, community parole officer, psychologist, and programs officer.

Within the community, Parole officers supervise and support offenders who have been granted conditional release and work as part of a team that include psychologists, halfway house staff, and police agencies. Parole officers must be flexible while yet enforcing strict controls such as release conditions.

In the community, parole officers ensure public safety by making scheduled or unscheduled visits with offenders, and communicating with family, police, employers as well as other persons who may be assisting the offender. Other duties include writing progress reports and working with many community agencies to help secure stable housing, employment and income.

[edit] External links

• Conférence Permanente Européenne de la Probation

[edit] References