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Thus it may be observed that the District Court bench is sceptical about the level of
compliance with conditions attached to a suspended sentence, meanwhile in the courts
which dealt with indictable offences the views expressed were optimistic as well as
pessimistic depending upon the judge interviewed.
Increasingly, the Circuit Criminal Court has made use of the judicially developed
“adjourned supervision” by the Probation Service as a condition to be attached to a
deferral of penalty. By using this devise, which has no basis under the Probation of
Offenders Act 1907, the court is enabled to monitor through a professional criminal justice
agency the behaviour of a convicted person pending final disposal of the case by way of
sentence. An example of this procedure might include an adjournment of penalty to
ensure a convicted person attends at a drug treatment centre and achieves a certain level of
stability before the court might dispose of the case finally. On the return date it is not at
all unusual, if the report of the offender is favourable, for the court to impose a suspended
sentence with a condition that the offender takes continuing advice and remains under the
supervision of the Probation Service for the period of the suspension of the sentence.
This term is usuallyspecificallyrecited as a condition in the recognisance entered into. It is
important to note that the offender in these circumstances is not placed “on probation”.
He/she is not conditionallydischarged but is actuallysentenced to a term of imprisonment
the suspension of which is supervised by a probation officer. Sometimes this procedure
is put in place without any prior adjournment of penalty as set out above where the court
simply places the offender on a suspended sentence during which period the offender is
supervised by a probation officer. Usually, however such a sentence is preceded by a
report from the Probation Service on issues raised at the original sentencing hearing.
Under Section 99 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 the Oireachtas has made provision for
the Probation Service to be formallyinducted into the procedures attached to a suspended
sentence but such changes maychallenge the identityof the probation officer as a friend of
the accused (fullydiscussed in chapter 7). For the moment, it is sufficient to highlight the
difficulties which the current procedures present when such conditions are attached to a
suspended sentence. If a client/offender is given a suspended sentence and placed under
continuing supervision by the Probation Service, what are the limits of discretion, if any,
which the probation officer is allowed before she/he is obliged to seek re-entry of the
case? What is the locus standi of the probation officer as complainant for any breach or is
this function solely a matter for the Prosecution? Does the probation officer have a
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