My Internship At The United States Probation Office

“The Prison and Probation Service has two main goals: To contribute to the reduction of criminality, and to work to increase safety in society. To achieve these goals we work with sentenced persons in order to improve their possibilities of living a life without committing new crimes.” (Linstrom and Leijonram)

Probation, as defined by Bartollas and Siegel, is “a form of punishment which allows the offender to remain in the community under supervision of a probation officer and is subject to certain conditions as set forth by the court” (2013). As such, the issue of probation supervision presents several challenges unique to this type of judicial punishment.

The profession that I decided to research was on a probation officer, and how they prepare a well-written presentence report. In order for an officer to correctly write a report; they should have all the actuality of the incident that had occurred (i.e., date, time, location) the defendants personal history (such an criminal records) and a statement from the victim on what had transpired. Each and every presentence report that a probation officer writes up should clear, complete, concise and accurate with their finding. The officers should be using correct legal terminology when its written.

My internship is at the Richland County Public Defender’s Office and I work directly with two juvenile defense attorneys. My office is at the Richland County Judicial Center. This position is very new and I am the second person to have this internship at USC, so defining my position is very complex. I do not have an on-site social work supervisor to turn to when I have questions, so, I have to figure out a lot of things on my own. Being that I work directly with the attorneys, a lot of things I see on the daily are on the legal side and not the social worker side per se. However, the attorneys involve me in the entire process when working with each client to provide a social work perspective to better help the clients and increase the quality of their services.

For those who work in the federal probation system, there are many skills needed. The knowledge used by these individuals and the abilities they can offer to their field are vital if they are going to be successful in what they do and in caring for offenders who are on probation and need to be monitored closely but also treated with respect and decency. Probation and supervision are not the only areas where these individuals are needed, however, because they can also work in pretrial services, corrections, counseling, and case management. The skills they use in one of those disciplines often transfer over to other disciplines, but not every individual is good at more than one area of work. The environment in which these workers operate is one of pressure and stress, and that environment is always changing. That makes it something worth focusing on and working for, and also shows just how dynamic the workers must be in order to remain calm in the face of stressful events and situations with which they must deal - often on a daily basis.

There are several steps to the criminal justice system, one of them is Probation; a program where the offender’s freedom is limited; usually they have a curfew, and have limits on the things they do. Probations Officers are a huge factor in getting the juvenile offender back on the right track following their sentence. One of the problems with probation is that rather than helping the offenders, sometimes it can hurt them. Some scholars argue that the officers do not take the juveniles, specifically females, seriously when it comes to referring them to receive mental health treatment. In contrast, other scholars argue that Probation Officers are the key to connecting the offenders with mental health care. I will begin by talking about how the gender of the juvenile contributes to the unjust treatment of juveniles on probation, then I will talk about probation officers as “the problem,” and lastly I will talk about a solution. I will conclude by stating my research question and making some contributions as to what can be done to build a stronger relationship between the offenders and the probation officers.

A wide range of diversity in the field of criminal justice studies is of great importance. As a second-year graduate student, I was given an opportunity to work closely with U.S Probation and Pretrial Services as an intern. This internship allowed me to further my knowledge in correctional studies and provided the necessary resources to complete my master’s thesis. I was also exposed to various policies and procedures pertaining to probation practices while gaining a vast amount of knowledge assisting with investigations, liaisons between state and local agencies, and the intricacies of offender case management. Furthermore, I was able to form close relationships with employees of the agency who have assisted in my current career endeavors.

After the trial has concluded, sentencing begins. A presentence report is compiled, usually by a probation officer which is a collection of the offender’s family, business situation, emotional state, social background and criminal history (Schmalleger, 2008). The judge then uses the presentence

My chosen career path is to become a Juvenile probation officer. Juvenile probation officers work with youths that have been placed on probation and or have been court order to attend an alternative consequence school to continue their education. Most juvenile probation officers work with youths at a particular stage of their probation process, for an example supervision or investigation. This paper will cover information on the juvenile justice system and my career choice by touching bases with my interviewee a Juvenile Probation Officer Shelvin McGill the agency he is employed with as well as its clientele, I will also speak on the job description and responsibilities, his theory-of-use, and briefly touch on why he chooses this line of work, and his educational background.

Probation serves as the most frequently used sentence for those convicted. This is evident when you consider that the United States justice system oversees nearly 7 million people. Over half of those, a staggering 3.7 million people, are on probation with another 840,000 on parole (Rabuy, 2017). With those individuals representing the largest percentage of the American corrections system, it is important that we learn as much as possible about probation in order to improve the success of these programs. Probation involves a set of conditions that the probationer agrees to adhere to in exchange for remaining in the community. Typical conditions include a waiver of the offenders fourth amendment rights, maintaining employment or school

Corrections: The Fundamentals, by Burk Foster. Published by Prentice-Hall. Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education,

Nearly six decades later, six states had passed laws regarding probation. By 1910, “thirty-two more states had passed legislation establishing juvenile probation” (Probation Historical Roots, 2013). Twenty years later, forty-nine out of fifty states had a juvenile probation law (Probation Historical Roots, 2013). Today, as defined by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “probation refers to adult offenders whom courts place on supervision in the community through a probation agency, generally in lieu of incarceration” (Community Corrections (Probation and Parole),

A crucial part of the criminal justice system includes probation. Probation is the release of a criminal offender from detention or incarceration. At this time, the offender is subject to a period of good behavior under supervision. Probation is also referred to a kind of punishment that is giving as part of sentencing. Instead of giving an offender a longer sentence, a judge will order the defendant to report to their assigned probation officer on a regular basis, where the offender will receive a schedule instructing him or her of their probation requirements. If the defendant does not obey a probation order, the defendant will automatically return to jail or to court, only to be given a longer sentence by the judge. A person on probation is not allowed to leave the judicial district without permission of the probation officer or court (Seiter, 2011). The probationer shall report to the probation officer as directed and shall submit truthful and complete reports (Seiter, 2011). A person on probation must also follow all directions instructed by his or her probation officer truthfully. When on probation, an offender must obtain employment and needs to notify his or her probation officer of all changes of address within a three-day limit. The probationer shall also refrain from the excessive use of alcohol

Your final report should be a complete report of your internship experiences under the title "How I Evaluate Myself as a Future Criminal Justice Worker," and may not exceed five typed pages. Describe the extent to which the theoretical knowledge included your course work at the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University contributed to your field practice experience during your internship. Cite at least two SHSU courses. Show what you have learned, indicate how your ideas have

The purpose of this research paper is to discuss about Parole and Probation in America. The paper is going to focus on the past, present and future of parole and probation. This paper includes discussion of Parole and Probation Officers, as well as why some states so longer utilize parole, including Florida. This paper will also include personal input about the topic.