An Introduction to Probation

If you have been in court for committing an offence, and either plead guilty or are found guilty, there are a number of ways that you can link in with the Probation Service:

• you could be referred for an assessment, usually called a probation report
• if the judge is thinking of sending you to prison she might ask the Probation Officer to see if you are suitable to do unpaid work (community service) in the community instead of going to prison
• the judge might give you a prison sentence and suspend all or part of that sentence on the condition that you remain under the supervision of the Probation Service
• it could also happen, even if you are sent to prison, that you could have contact with the Probation Service, either through Community Return, Supervised Temporary Release (TR) or supervision while out on license (life sentenced prisoners)

The term probation can be used to describe any of the above arrangements.

The Probation Service's work believes in a person's capacity for change. Our staff are highly trained, and skilled in probation work, and committed to helping you to change/turn your life around. Because of that, you can be assured that your Probation Officer will do everything possible to help you to avoid reoffending and give you the best chance of changing. Working with your Probation Officer you will be challenged and assisted to take the necessary actions to address the issues which have led to your offending behaviour.

You have the right to be treated with dignity and respect by everyone you meet in the Probation Service and if you have any complaints you can get information on this website about what to do.

If you are in court for a criminal offence and you either plead guilty or are found guilty, the judge can ask for a probation report before a decision is made about how to deal with your case.

There are two types of assessment reports:

Pre-sanction reports (also known as probation reports) and

Community Service reports where you will be assessed to see if you are suitable to do unpaid work in the community instead of going to prison. Community Service will be explained in a separate leaflet.

The judge can ask for one, or both, of these reports and will adjourn the case for the report to be prepared. Generally speaking, assessment reports will be completed within eight weeks for adults, and within four weeks for young people.

Assessment

If the judge has asked the Probation Officer to complete a Pre-sanction report on you, expect the following:

• you will get a letter in the post with an appointment for you to call to the probation office where you will meet your Probation Officer, who will explain in detail what is involved. It is very important for you to keep this appointment
• you can expect to meet your Probation Officer a number of times, usually three times, before the report will be completed. One of these meetings might be in your own home
• your Probation Officer may ask you to sign a form giving permission for other people to be contacted to get information for your report. For instance, if you are attending a drug service, it may be necessary for the Probation Officer to talk to the drugs’ worker to get confirmation of your attendance
• your Probation Officer will complete an assessment with you, which will identify what’s going on in your life that could affect the chances of you reoffending; knowing this will help you to stay out of trouble. When completing your assessment report the Probation Officer will consider: the seriousness of the offence; your attitude to the offence; your attitude to the victim; the supports available to you. S/he will agree a plan to help you avoid reoffending
• your report to court will give the court a summary of all the information gathered. You will be informed of the content of this report before it goes to court
• if the report is recommending probation supervision it will contain conditions for the supervision, for example, it might be a condition of your supervision that you live in a particular place and/or that you attend a drug treatment service or other services. These conditions will be agreed with you in advance
• if you are placed on supervision it will be for a specified period of time, eg. 12 months.

Being referred to the Probation Service is a chance for you to identify the issues in your life that affect your offending, coming to the notice of the Gardai and coming before the courts. It is a good opportunity for you to get the support and guidance you need to address these issues.

The Probation Service believes that if you take the opportunity offered it will help you, your family and your community to feel happier and safer.

Please remember that while the Probation Officer may make a recommendation to the Court, it will ultimately be up to the Judge to decide on the appropriate sanction.

Probation Officers also have a very important duty to consider public safety. This means that they have to consider the possibility of any harm that may be caused should you re-offend. Officers can only consider recommending a community sanction where they believe you can be supervised in a community setting without placing the community at risk by re-offending.

After the assessment report has been submitted to the Court, the Judge will have a range of sentencing options available to him/her. Further details on the types of community based supervision options open to the Courts and of what to expect if you are placed on supervision are available in the Supervision section.

In Court: Where the Judge feels that your case merits a community sanction, (a sentence in the community), they will place you under the supervision of the Probation Service.

Probation Recognisance is the name given to this agreement/contract between you and the Court, where you promise to obey certain conditions during a set period of time under the supervision of a Probation Officer. You will be required to agree to the conditions in Court and will have to sign the recognisance. What this means is that you have entered into a contract with the Court and the Probation Service to follow the direction of your Probation Officer and comply with their recommendations.

Role of the Probation Officer: While the main role of the Probation Officer is to ensure that you do not break the terms of this agreement, this is just one part of their role. The other part is to help you to make the changes necessary to help you stay away from the criminal behaviour that brought you before the Court.

First contact with your Probation Officer: Your first contact with your Probation Officer is usually when they write to you to give you an appointment to meet with them. This meeting will take place soon after your Court appearance in a Probation Service office.

What is required: When you are under supervision, your Probation Officer will put together a Supervision Plan with you, and you will be obliged to attend regular scheduled meetings with them. The Probation Officer will help you find out what the root causes of your offending are, help you to build motivation to make positive changes and help you develop ways to avoid falling back into the same pattern of behaviour. They will also monitor that you are doing your part and complying with the terms of your recognisance. The purpose of the Supervision Plan is to give you a roadmap and the tools to help you change your behaviour from the path that you are currently on.

When you receive a Probation Order, you have effectively entered into a contract:

You have promised the Court to:

• Be of good behaviour;
• Avoid further crime;
• Follow the Probation Officer’s instructions, and;
• Inform the Court of any change of address.

There may also be some additional conditions attached to the order such as attending a training course, mentoring programme or treatment clinic - or residing in a hostel.

If you do not comply with the requirements of the order, the Probation Officer may return the case to Court.

If someone makes good progress while under supervision, the probation officer may consider applying to the Court to have the order discharged early.

Making the most of supervision: It is important for you to accept that being placed on Probation Supervision is an opportunity for you to take responsibility and address the issues that have caused you to be before the Courts. It is a chance for you to get the help to make a positive change in your life. The Probation Service believe that every person is capable of change and we will work with you to help you take the necessary steps to do this.

Community Service Order: This is a community-based sanction imposed by a Judge as an alternative to a prison sentence of 12 months or less for persons aged 16 years and over.

Before imposing this sanction, the Judge may request a Community Service Report from the Probation Service to inform their decision as to whether or not you are suitable to perform Community Service work.

If, after considering the reports produced by the Probation Officer, work in the community is considered an appropriate sanction, the Judge will specify the number of hours work to be done, (between 40 - 240 hours) and what prison sentence should be imposed if you fail to complete this work. The Probation Service is responsible for informing the Court if you do not complete this work.

How it works: There are two principal ways in which Community Service work is carried out:

• in small work groups supervised directly by a Community Service Supervisor who works for the Probation Service. The Community Service Supervisor remains on site with the group of participants.
• in individual placements: This is where you may be placed on an individual placement with a host organisation, other than the Probation Service, who agree to allow you to work the requisite hours within their organisation. Host organisations who agree to allow Community Service participants work in their organisations are required to provide appropriate levels of supervision.
• you are required to make your own way to the site. You do not receive travel expenses.

Every year, thousands of hours of unpaid work are provided to not-for-profit, community and voluntary grouping through CSOs. The benefits of Community Service are many and varied - but there are two principal goals: to give something back to your community for the harm that you have caused, and to provide a sanction that has the potential to provide valuable experience for the offender.

Click here for a list of Probation Service offices

The Community Return Scheme is an incentivised scheme for the supervised release of qualifying prisoners who complete unpaid community work as a condition of their early release.

It gives prisoners, whom the Irish Prison Service and Probation Service have assessed as being suitable and motivated, the opportunity of early - and renewable temporary release with resettlement support. It is available for those who have been assessed as posing no threat to the community; are serving more than one year and fewer than eight years, and who have served at least 50% of their sentence. The programme involves participants doing supervised community service instead of remaining in prison. If you are placed on Community Return the expectations on you are similar to that of Community Service; you must complete the work on the days assigned for the length of time it was agreed. This is usually near the end of your sentence.

Among the beneficial outcomes of this scheme is shifting the balance of the criminal justice system away from prison and toward crime prevention and paying back to the community.

Research has shown that Community Return is a successful strategy. In a study of the programme for the period 2011-2013, almost 89% had either successfully completed their Community Return Programme or were still working on it. Of those participants released during the first year of the programme, 91% had not been committed to prison on a new custodial sentence in the period up to the end of 2013.

Community Based Organisations

While the Probation Service works mainly in the community, we also work in all fourteen prisons and places of detention.

On arrival in prison you will be advised of the availability of the Probation Service. Whilst a Judge or Governor can request that a Probation Officer be assigned to work with you, you can also request to meet with a Probation Officer.

Probation Officers working in Prisons will make contact with those offenders who are likely to be under Probation Supervision in the Community on release.

In prison your Probation Officer will work with you to address your offending behaviour, using the time as an opportunity to make changes and exploring ways of avoiding offending in the future. We work as part of a team and this can mean working closely with prison staff, psychologists, addiction specialists and community based organisations who can help you re-integrate on release into the Community. We can also provide assistance to you and your family in preparing for your re-settlement in the community.

Whilst in prison you can undertake training, participate in addiction awareness programmes and engage in constructive activity which will help with your rehabilitation.

The Probation Service also work closely with the Irish Prison Service on a joint Probation and Prison Service initiative Community Return, whereby carefully selected prisoners are granted reviewable temporary release conditional on them performing unpaid supervised community work.

Probation Officers also provide assessments and reports to the Department of Justice, Irish Prison Service, Parole Board and other appropriate bodies as required. In particular the Probation Service supervises offenders who are subject to a life sentence on release from custody.

Probation Officers are trained in ‘gender-informed’ practices, and there are staff in all regions with experience and expertise in addressing the particular challenges that women face. Ways of working include: specific programmes, practical arrangements or options which are suitable and supportive of women, taking into account, among other things, their role as parents. Probation Officers also facilitate group work programmes, both in the community and in the Dóchas Centre - the women’s prison in Dublin.

While most women who offend may pose a low risk of harm to society, they usually present with high levels of need. This range of needs includes: homelessness; mental-health issues and addiction.

A holistic/ co-ordinated and multi-agency response: We work very closely with a wide variety of services - statutory, voluntary and community based, to support the women under our supervision. In practice, this involves linking women with local services that can help with challenges they may be experiencing at the time, e.g. financial stress, parenting and so on. Prompt referral and effective communication with a variety of agencies is beneficial and a key feature of our way of working with women.

In prison: In the event of a woman being sentenced to prison, a “through care” model is adopted by the Probation Service with the Irish Prison Service. This links the woman to appropriate services in the prison setting and the community - to provide every opportunity for rehabilitation and re-integration after release.

Community Based Organisations

Tus Nua Accommodation and support for women at risk of homelessness

Tus Nua is co-funded by the Irish Government and the European Social Fund as part of the ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning 2014-2020.

Helpful links

Aislinn Residential drugs programme for young men and women

Aiseiri Addiction treatment

Coolmine Residential rehabilitation centre

https://www.safeireland.ie

The Rape Crisis Network

Womens Aid

Cosc.ie The National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender based Violence

Blueblindfold Human trafficking

SAOL

Strategic goals

The Probation Service and the Irish Prison Service have developed a Joint Strategy to address the specific needs of women offenders: An Effective Repsonse to Women Who Offend - A Joint Strategy as well as a strategy to combat domestic violence Probation Service Domestic Violence Strategy 2015 - 2017

For more statistics on women in the Probation Service please visit pages 55 and 56 of the Probation Service Annual Report, 2014

The Probation Service knows that working with young people who offend is different to working with adults who offend. As a result, we have developed a division of trained staff - Young Persons Probation (YPP), to work with children and teenagers between the ages of 12 and 18 who come before the Courts, or who are in the Children Detention Schools/Centre.

Young people make up a good proportion of new referrals to our services, and we support and work with a range of programmes to help young people at a critical time in their lives.

Four Community Based Organisations dealing with the young persons on probation (YPP) are co-funded by the Irish Government and the European Social Fund as part of the ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning 2014-2020. The organisations co funded under the ESF Programme are

• Le Chéile, which is a nationwide mentoring service.
• Céim ar Chéim and Southill projects based in Limerick City, and
• Dóchas don Óige based in Galway
• Background: When the was passed back in 2001, it marked a turning point in the treatment of young people
• in the Criminal Justice System.
• Under the Act , the Court is obliged to seek a *Pre-Sanction Report from Probation Officers (YPP) when considering community sanction, detention or both.
• Proposals are also outlined for the safe management of the person, whether by community sanction or alternative programme. As well as carrying out risk assessment, YPP attempts to identify the cause of the offending behaviour, the juvenile’s attitude to it and motivation to change - and also provide appropriate guidance and information relating to the community sanctions.
• Part of this role also involves working closely with the Irish Youth Justice Service in addition to the Court.

Family Conferences

A Family Conference, which is guided by the principle of restorative justice (link to restorative justice page), involves a meeting of the young person, a member of his/her family, the victim - and relevant others. It is ordered by the Court under the Act and run by YPP.

At the meeting, the young person’s offence will be discussed from the standpoint of its effect on the victim.

The conference will also explore ways that the young person can take responsibility for his/her behaviour for the consequences and where possible, make amends for what he/she has done. It also aims to come up with an agreed plan which will help the young person avoid getting in trouble in the future.

A Court-ordered family conference takes place at the stage when a young person is charged with an offence and appears in Court. If:

• the young person accepts responsibility
• the Court considers an action plan desirable
• the child and child’s family agree to participate

If these requirements are met, the family conference is held no more than 28 days later.

The Probation Service works with offenders who are, or have experienced homelessness and connects them to organisations specialising in responses to their particular difficulties. The Probation Service recognise the broad range of issues that people who are homeless may experience. The multi-layered nature of the problems experienced by homeless people: addiction, psychological and physical abuse and isolation - among other difficulties, emphasises the need for the Service to have strong links with community and support groups specialising in this area.

Focus areas include:

• Providing assistance to offenders under probation supervision to identify needs and access services, including accommodation.
• Working with partner agencies we try to facilitate accommodation and resettlement needs of offenders into mainstream service delivery.
• In Dublin, the Homeless Offenders Team (HOT) manage the cases of those on Probation who are homeless. The Service also has dedicated prison-based staff who work in partnership with the HSE Homeless Person Unit and the Irish Prisons Service (IPS).

The HOT team has a community-based focus, involving the assessment and supervision of all under probation supervision and classified as homeless by the Probation Service within the Greater Dublin area. The team liaises with all mainstream services as part of the development of integrated or ‘joined-up’ service provision.

Outside the Dublin area, offenders who are homeless are managed and supported by local Probation Officers.

Courts Service

Crosscare

Crosscare Migrant Project

Citizens Information

De Paul Trust

Department of Justice/Criminal Legal Aid

Department of Social and Family Affairs

Drug Awareness

Exchange House

Family Support Agency

Free Legal Advice Centre

Homeless Agency

HSE - Find a Service menu link HSE - Find a Service

IASIO menu link IASIO

Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service

Legal Aid Board

Merchants Quay Ireland menu link Merchants Quay Ireland

Money Advice Bureau (MABS)

Move Ireland menu link Move Ireland

National Adult Literacy Association (NALA) menu link National Adult Literacy Association (NALA)

Protestant Aid

Salvation Army

Solas

St. Vincent De Paul