Probation and parole officer
A probation or parole officer is an official appointed or sworn to investigate, report on, and supervise the conduct of convicted offenders on probation or those released from incarceration to community supervision such as parole.[4] Most probation and parole officers are employed by the government of the jurisdiction in which they operate, although some are employed by private companies that provide contracted services to the government.
"Parole Officer" redirects here. For the film, see The Parole Officer.Occupation
Employment
Secondary or tertiary education
Public areas, correctional facilities
Police officer
correctional officer
social worker
Duties and functions[edit]
Responsibilities of a probation or parole officer are varied. While the majority of the public considers these officers as merely supervisors of offenders, their role within the legal system is significantly broader and more complex.[5] While their roles vary throughout the world, they are commonly responsible for upholding conditions of supervision as sentenced by a court or other government entity which includes specific case management aimed at reducing an offender's risk to reoffend.[6]
At a minimum, they are required to possess above average oral and written communication skills and have a broad knowledge of the criminal justice system.[7] This includes knowledge of the roles, relationships, and responsibilities that are distributed among the government agencies and outside organizations such as the courts, the parole authority, the prison system, local jails, prosecuting attorneys, other law enforcement and corrections agencies, treatment providers, etc. Officers must understand applicable case law and sentencing guidelines. Additionally, they must have an ability to work with an extremely diverse population of individuals who have been convicted of various crimes. They must also accept the potential hazards of working closely with a criminal population.[8][9] In the United States, most jurisdictions require officers to have a four-year bachelor's degree, and prefer a graduate degree for federal probation officer positions.[10]
Officers are usually issued a badge or some other form of credentials indicating their position and sometimes rank. In some cases, they may carry a pistol openly or concealed, and often carry less-than-lethal devices such as pepper spray or tasers for self-protection.[11] Typically, probation and parole officers do not wear standard law enforcement uniforms, but dress in plainclothes, business or casual attire.
The structure of probation and parole agencies varies. Traditionally, these agencies have a loosely based paramilitary command structure, and are usually headed by a chief, field supervisor, or director. In some U.S. states, probation departments fall under a county sheriff, and officers may be uniformed and integrated into the structure of the agency. In both systems, some parole and probation officers supervise general caseloads with offenders who are convicted of a variety of offenses. Others may hold specialized caseload positions, and work with specific groups of offenders such as sex offenders, gang members, offenders sentenced to electronic monitoring (such as house arrest) or GPS monitoring,[12] and cases with severe mental health, substance abuse and/or violent histories.[13]
Probation and parole officer training will vary depending on the legislated power given or the socioeconomics of the region. In some jurisdictions, they may be certified law enforcement officials who have completed mandated police academy training.[14] Other may act as court officials with a more social work oriented or bureaucratic role.[15]
In North America, standard training usually includes:[16]
Many jurisdictions have also, in recent years, expanded basic training to include:
By country[edit]
Australia[edit]
Probation and parole officers in Australia serve an active role in recommending community based supervision to magistrates and 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 or she performs community service, but to also develop the community service plans themselves.
Canada[edit]
Parole officers in Canada play a critical role at both the institutional and community levels. 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 Service 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 their programming needs, and the security risks they pose. Subsequently, offenders are matched with selected institutional services such as rehabilitation programs. This includes identifying the factors contributing to criminal behavior, developing intervention plans to address them, and helping offenders to 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. 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.
Malta[edit]
Malta has its own probation services that form part of the Department of Correctional Services within the Ministry of Justice & Home Affairs. The probation services have been in existence since 1957 and the first probation order was granted in 1961. There is no parole as of yet in Malta, however a bill introducing parole has been presented in parliament. 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 orders, suspended sentence supervision orders, community service orders, combination orders, provisional orders of supervision, pre-sentencing reports, and social inquiry reports.
United Kingdom[edit]
In the United Kingdom, probation orders were introduced by the Probation of Offenders Act 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. 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 travelled the globe.
In modern times the duties of probation officers in the U.K. are to supervise offenders released on licence from custody, and to supervise offenders given non-custodial supervisory sentences at court. The work involves focuses on the management of risk of serious harm associated with offenders, on sentence planning and the selection and delivery of a range of interventions aimed at reducing reoffending, and on supervising; and variously devising, delivering or subcontracting schemes by which offenders having "community payback" sentences can discharge their requirement to perform unpaid work. Probation officers are also charged with providing a variety of reports on offenders throughout their criminal justice lifecycle, such as pre-sentence reports making recommendations on interventions likely to reduce the likelihood of reoffending or of causing serious harm; pre-release reports making recommendations on licence conditions or other interventions necessary for offenders being considered for release on licence; and parole reports advising the parole board of the probation service view of the offender suitability for release. Such reports typically provide assessments of the criminal, the nature of crimes and effect on victims, the criminogenic needs and risk of serious harm associated with the individual, and will normally be based in part on an offender assessment system analysis. Probation officers are also responsible for the provision of regular reports to courts of the progress of offenders on orders having drug testing requirements. 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.
Probation officers are responsible for recalling offenders who have been released on licence and have breached their license conditions, and to return offenders on community payback orders to court for re-sentencing in the event of breaches of the terms of the order. The English and Welsh system has two levels of officer, probation officer, and probation service officer - the latter will normally have less training than the former, and will be limited to supervising offenders at low and medium risk of serious harm.
Thailand[edit]
Probation in Thailand is currently under the auspices of the Thailand Ministry of Justice. It has been developed through various amendment and enactment of laws and regulation along with the advancement of knowledge within criminal justice and criminology sphere. The probation system was first introduced into Thailand in 1952 and applied to juvenile detention centres under the juvenile and family court. In 1956, the use of probation was explicitly stipulated for the first time in the modern Criminal Code of Thailand as a condition of sentence or punishment in adult criminal cases. Probation was never formally invoked, however, until the Proceedings of Probation Act 1979 was enacted which was nearly twenty years later with the establishment of the first probation office, the Central Probation Office, was also established correspondingly as a division within the Office of Judicial Affairs under the Criminal Court, Ministry of Justice. In 1992, the Central Probation Office was elevated to be part of the Department of Probation separated from the court with the main roles and responsibilities in adult probationers under suspension of sentence or punishment. Responsibility for juvenile probation was then transferred to the Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection and probation for parolees was transferred to the Department of Corrections under the Ministry of Interior. The fragmentation of responsibilities led to the revision of agencies roles and responsibilities in 2001 when the cabinet had issued a resolution to re-organise probation works and the Department of Probation was proposed to be the main agency in charge of pretrial, trial and post-trial probation only for adult offenders, the aftercare services and drug rehabilitation for offenders to the department. In 2016, further the promulgation of the Probation Act 2016 significantly ameliorates and consolidates roles and responsibilities of the department and probation officers whilst offering better mechanism in order to support the essence of the implementation of non-custodial measure and rehabilitation of offenders. The work of drug addict rehabilitation is currently in the transition to the Ministry of Public Health.
Popular culture has depicted the role of probation and parole officers in a variety of ways. References to POs also occur in urban music such as rap and hip hop.