Offender Assessment and Supervision
The Probation Service provides offender assessment, probation supervision, community service, anti – offending behaviour programmes and specialist support services. Our services are provided to both adult and young offenders, in the community and in custody and aim to reduce re-offending and increase public safety. The Service works closely with offenders, families, the Court Service, the Irish Prison Service, An Garda Síochána, the Irish Youth Justice Service, the Office for the Minister for the Children and many organisations in the community.
The Probation Service has three Directorates: Operations; Corporate Affairs and Research, Training and Development. The Operations Directorate has responsibility for offender assessment and supervision.
OPERATIONS DIRECTORATE
The function of the Operations Directorate is to reduce the risk of re-offending through quality assessments and effective supervision and re-integration of offenders. To achieve this, staff provide probation work and related services to the courts, prisons and places of detention.
There are four principle divisions within the Operations Directorate : Adult Offender Supervision & Assessment; Young Persons Probation; Community Service; Community Initiatives (Community Based Organisations in receipt of funding).
Delivery of the service at local level is organised on a team basis using a regional structure.
There are 7 Operational Regions:
Two of which are organised nationally (Click on the region name for a list of our offices)
· Young Persons Probation
· Prisoners, Risk and Resettlement
The other 5 regions are
· Dublin North & North East
· Dublin South & Wicklow
· Midlands & South East
· South West
· West/North-West & Westmeath
Administrative support for the Operations Directorate and all regional offices is provided by staff of the Corporate Affairs Directorate.
ASSESSMENT
Probation Officers deliver an offender assessment service to Court to assist the court in sentencing decisions, particularly where probation supervision or community service is being considered. Furthermore they provide appropriate guidance and information relating to the range of community sanctions. There are two main types of offender assessment report:
Pre – Sanction Report (PSR) These are also known as ‘probation reports’ They assess suitability for a supervised community sanction and issues relevant to reducing offending.
Community Service Report (CSR) These reports are to specifically assess suitability of an offender to do unpaid work in the community instead of going to prison.
Further details on Probation Assessment>>>
SUPERVISION
Offenders can be placed on a period of probation supervision. Offenders must then remain under the supervision of a Probation Officer for a period of time, specified by the sentencing judge. The supervision of offenders in the community is the primary statutory responsibility of the Probation Service, and forms the majority of our work nationwide.
Probation Supervision – This is where the offender must remain under the supervision of a Probation Officer for a period of time decided by the court. Sometimes the court may also include specific conditions of supervision, aimed at reducing the risk of re-offending, depending on the particular circumstances of the case.
Further Details on Probation Supervision>>>
PRISONS AND PLACES OF DETENTION
Probation Officers also work in all of the prisons and places of detention. Our work in custody includes advising and assisting prisoners with issues which have led to their offending behaviour and principally in coping with the impact of imprisonment. Our work involves:
- Motivating offenders to use the period of imprisonment to address his/her offending behaviour;
- Contributing to the throughcare process where the offender will be subject to supervision by the Probation Service post release.
- Helping prisoners, their families and social supports in preparing for positive re-settlement in the community;
- Providing assessments and reports to the Department of Justice and Equality, Irish Prison Service, Parole Board and other appropriate bodies as required. Further details on our work with prisoners
- Contributing to multi-disciplinary working in prisons, for effective sentence management and delivery of services; and
- Co-ordinating and assisting community based bodies in the provision of services to prisoners, their families and communities, aimed at reducing offending and assisting prisoners’ resettlement within the community;
Further details on Probation Service work in prisons and places of detention can be found here
