Our detailed mission statement and goals
What is a Probation Officer and what do they do?
A Probation Officer is someone who supervises a person who has been placed on probation. Probation is granted by a judge to allow someone to stay in a community and abide by specific rules rather than be sent to detention, (jail or prison for adults) or what is called incarceration. Incarceration is extremely costly compared to probation(approximately $85.00 per day to incarcerate juveniles compared to approximately $4.00 (four) dollars per day for probation). Keeping an offender in the community reduces costs to society by requiring an offender to work to support themselves and their families, pay restitution to their crime victims, attend therapy and counseling to address criminal behavior rather than being incarcerated. Some of a Probation Officers’ job duties include:
Monitoring compliance with court orders
Providing support and help to victims in securing restitution
Overseeing the rehabilitative efforts of the offenders
Preparing reports and recommendations for the court
Conducting offender work and home visits
Administering drug tests
Probation Officers must become competent in addressing the following issues: drug and alcohol abuse, sexual deviancy, child abuse, domestic violence, and mental illness. One of the most important qualities for a Probation Officer to have is that of flexibility and the ability to continue to adapt and learn and develop new strategies for the supervision of offenders. As of January 2012, there are approximately 7,800 juveniles in the state of Idaho on some sort of community supervision and approximately 350 in state custody. Keeping the 7,800 offenders in the community is a significant benefit to the Idaho taxpayer when you consider the costs involved when you place offenders into state custody.
Who do Probation Officers work with?
In addition to holding offenders accountable and working within the court system, Probation Officers work hand in hand with community groups and social service agencies to provide offenders and victims with the support and services they need. Probation Officers maintain partnerships with law enforcement and other justice agencies so the agencies can benefit from the expertise of each other and share information on criminal activity.
Who is on probation?
Offenders that are deemed appropriate for community supervision. Typically, adult offenders are placed on probation for one to five years. Juvenile offenders can be on probation until age twenty-one.
If you have specific questions about probation or the roles of a Probation Officer, please don’t hesitate to contact my office. Our focus is the safety and protection of the community, holding juvenile offenders accountable for their behavior and competency development of the juvenile offenders. We strive to attain this through a multifaceted approach with the courts, treatment providers, strategic partnerships with community members and families. Our goal is to use evidence based approaches to confront and minimize delinquent behaviors within the juvenile population in this community.
Fremont County Juvenile Probation is the hope and core of justice and safety in our community.
We intervene to prevent the recurrence of crime among juvenile defendants and offenders by supervising them and getting them the help they need to change the problem behavior.
The field of Community Corrections - probation and parole officers and other critical support services - is doing work that makes a critical difference in the safety of our communities and society.
We provide supervision and treatment resources to protect and help people, families and communities address the issues and problems that drive crime.
Effective intervention is a proven way to prevent recurrence among offenders and keep communities safe.