Probation Officer Job Description and Responsibilities

A probation officer is the one responsible for the supervision of people on probation. A probation officer has direct interactions with people who are on probation and will usually have to visit to the probationer’s residence. The officer also collaborates with various out-reach organizations within the community. This will help them to rehabilitate certain offenders.

The organizations in the community help in scrutinizing the probationer’s behavior. The job of the probationer does not end in supervising. They also help in getting drug rehabilitation and job training to the offender. Mostly, the officers focus their attention on young and adult offenders exclusively.

Now that you know what a probation officer is, you should know more about a probation officer job description. The probation officer is under direct supervision of a chief probation officer. An assistant chief officer is the one who investigates the offender’s personal history, environment, background, reports the findings to the court and makes recommendations on dispositions as well.

The assistant chief probation officer refers the probationers to the social resources for rehabilitation and assistance, enforces court orders, modification of the court orders and recommends in revoking of probation. The probation officer job description is somewhat similar to those office jobs. The position requires the applicant a minimum of one year full time experience in allied or human services. But there is an exception, if the applicant has a degree in behavioral sciences, administration, education, criminal justice, law and management it may substitute to the first requirement. The person applying for this position must also be a graduate from an accredited university or college.

Now that the probation officer job description has been established, you should know the probation officer job responsibilities. The probation officer working countless hours for the court system. He does background research of the offender and after compiling the findings, they will make recommendations. The probation officer also has responsibility in updating the court of the current conformity of the offender with the issued mandates of the court. The case loads, most of the time will be based on the offenders’ crimes. Offenders that have grave supervision are appointed to a probation officer that has case loads that are relatively smaller. The caseload varies in the agency’s jurisdiction. It is expected that the probation officers are able to handle 20-100 cases anytime.

Probation officers are using phones, computers and other equipment to make their cases faster. They can also do their task at the comfort of their home office. Their job is quite risky since they are supervising people that can be very dangerous. There are times that the situations are quite volatile. The officer must also be able to handle the individual’s temper. They must also comply with the pressure and deadlines from the court, and are also commanded to travel to supervise and meet the offenders.