Probation Officers in England and Wales
The National Probation Service is charged with supervising offenders released from custody or awarded community-based sanctions such as community service orders, and compiling relevant data regarding offender supervision. Its modern structure for the U.K. was established in April 2001 by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act. However, it has existed since 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 – 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 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 will 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 not law enforcement officers and do not have law enforcement powers. However they have the ability to recall to prison offenders released from custody on licence if licence conditions are breached; and to return offenders on community service orders to court for re-sentencing in the event of beaches of the terms of the order. The English & Welsh system has two levels of officer, the Probation Officer, and the Probation Service Office - the latter will normally have less training than the former, and will be limited to supervising offenders at low risk of serious harm.
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