This essay will outline and analysis the development and professionalism of the probation service and the role of a probation officer. Additionally, this essay will evaluate previous and current legislation and problems the probation service has faced and currently undergoing, this will include the privatisation of the probation service and data leakage issues.
Probation officers are part of the criminal justice system (House of Commons, 2011). probation officers supervise multiple individuals helping them make progress into a more integrated lifestyle, for example this could mean helping offenders finding a job, a place to live, counselling, or helping offender gain access to education to improve their prospects (House of commons, 2011). The purpose of a probation officer is to assist in preventing reoffending (House of Commons, 2011).
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Following on from this, the Probation of Offenders Act (1907) provided the basic infrastructure for magistrate’s courts to give cases to probation officer employed by the local authorises. The Probation of Offenders Act (1907) legislated probation officers to supervise the offenders while assisting them on a personal level. Additionally, within the first year 763 officers were employed, and 570 probations orders were issued. (McCarva, 2008).
The 763 officers were part-time until 1925 when probation officers became fulltime (Halls and canton 2014). Moreover, From when the probation service was first develop probation officers only worked with young offenders up until the Crime and Disorder Act (1998) Following on from new legislation the role of a probation officer changed to predominately focus on adult offenders (18+) (Halls and canton