Probation Officer - Probation and Parole in The United States

Probation and Parole in The United States

In to 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 Bachelor's 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. In some states, due to the heightened 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 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 specialized caseload 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 a surveillance officer or field supervision 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. This is similar to the Probation Officer Assistant position at the federal level in the U.S. Court system.