INTRODUCTION
One may argue, why should there be a probations system? For many people, one of the greatest injustices of the criminal justice system is that convicted offenders are free to commit new crimes before they “pay” for the old ones. Despite that argument, probations play an integral role in any country’s criminal justice system and for that reason a probations office within the criminal justice system was established. Additionally, probation is one of the least restrictive penalties among the alternatives confronting a sentencing judge. It is in fact a conditional release of an individual by the court after having been found guilty of the crime charged and not a dismissal of charges as one may believe. Probation is a basic tool
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It dates to the English common law, when a court had the authority to suspend an execution, while a convicted criminal appealed to the monarch for a pardon. The United States borrowed from that system. However, probation was developed in 1841 when a Boston cobbler, named John Augustus also known as the father of probation, convinced a judge in the Boston Police Court to release a convicted offender to his care for a short time. Mr. Augustus goal was presenting the offender rehabilitation to the court in time of sentencing. Probation services are provided by the judicial branch or the executive branch of state or local government – a distinction that appears to the rest as much tradition as policy. The Probations and Parole office in Saint Lucia is under the Ministry of Home Affairs and National …show more content…
Through the process of assessment, guidance, effective intervention and treatment of offenders, the probations agency is able to help clients to function well in the community settings and to balance their mental state and interpersonal relationships. Any individual improvement in social – cognitive capacity, thinking, motivations, emotion and behavior regardless of how insignificant it is, will benefit family, community and society. This in turns reduces the possibility of prison overcrowding. Also keeping reoffenders from