Traditional Probation & Intensive Supervision ... - Ottawa County

Attachment BHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEProbation first developed in the United States in 1841 when a boot-maker inMassachusetts persuaded a judge in the Boston Police Court to give him custody of aconvicted offender, a "drunkard," for a brief period and then helped the man becomesober by the time of sentencing. After 1841, the practice of a suspended sentence becamewidespread in U.S. Courts, although there was no statutory authorization for such apractice. In 1916, the United States Supreme Court held that a Federal Judge (Killets)was without power to suspend a sentence indefinitely. This famous court decision led tothe passing of the National Probation Act of 1925, thereby, allowing courts to suspendthe imposition of a sentence and place an offender on probation, which is known as theKillets Decision.Between 1920 and 1950, major developments in the field of psychology led probationofficers to focus their attention on counseling probationers. The most significant of thechanges associated with this new focus of probation was that a probation officer’sprimary responsibility was no longer to act as a community supervisor charged withenforcing a particular morality. The officer’s responsibility was that of a clinical socialworker whose goal was to help the offender solve psychological and social problems thatcontribute to their criminal behavior. Another significant change was that the offenderwas expected to become actively involved in treatment. An offender’s pursuit ofrehabilitation as the primary goal of probation gave the probation officer extensivediscretion in defining and treating the offender's problem(s). Officers used theirjudgment to evaluate each offender and develop a treatment approach to the personalproblems that presumably had led to crime.During the 1960s, major social changes swept across the United States that again changedthe field of community corrections. Rather than helping to solve an offender’spsychological or social problems, it became the responsibility of probation officers toprovide offenders with concrete social services such as assistance with employment,housing, finances, and education. This emphasis on reintegrating offenders andremedying the social problems they faced was consistent with federal efforts to wage a"war on poverty." As opposed to being a counselor or therapist, it was the responsibilityof the probation officer to serve as an advocate, dealing with private and publicinstitutions on the offender's behalf.In the late 1970s, the orientation of probation changed again as the goals of rehabilitationand reintegration gave way to "risk management." This approach, still dominant today,seeks to minimize the probability that an offender will commit a new offense (i.e.recidivate). In other words, the amount and type of supervision during probation aredetermined based on the associated risk that probationers will recidivate after programcompletion.Source: Wikepedia: Probation; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probation (2006)