What is a Probation Officer?

A Probation Officer is a qualified social worker who works with offenders and their families in courts, the community and prisons. The Probation Officer is responsible for ensuring that you are keeping to the conditions of the court order.

A Probation Officer will interview you and will gather information from a range of other sources, for example; family, employer, school, and the police. If you are under 18 years old when you are being interviewed another adult must also be present.

The Pre Sentence Report (PSR) assesses the risk of re-offending and whether that risk could be managed in the community. The Probation Officer offers options to the court which he feels will give you the best opportunity either to make reparation, i.e. to give something back to the community, or to address your offending behaviour and life style issues. This will also involve looking at what programmes and support are available in the community.

The PSR is then sent to the court in advance of the case being heard for the Magistrate to examine. In the PSR, the Probation Officer will have outlined a number of options for the magistrate to consider. For example, if someone has been caught driving whilst disqualified, the Probation Officer might suggest the person attends a particular Probation Programme which will address this behaviour. The Probation Board’s IMPACT (Inclusive Model of Partnership against Car Theft www.impactproject.org) programme is designed primarily for young people caught stealing cars, and you may be asked to attend this, or a similar alcohol or anger management programme. This is known as an ‘extra requirement’ to a Probation Order.

The Probation Officer in prison

Probation Officers also provide a service in prisons to offenders in custody. Teams of Probation Officers are located in each prison in Northern Ireland (Hydebank Wood, Maghaberry, Magilligan). In partnership with the Prison Service, programmes are provided for those individuals who wish to look at changing their behaviour and help those preparing for and after release. A service called Prison Link, a partnership between PBNI and NIACRO (www.niacro.co.uk), also provides a range of services to support prisoners’ families.