Juvenile Probation
About Probation
The Community Supervision (Probation) Unit screens all Juvenile Court referrals, makes recommendations to the court regarding the need for detention, prepares predisposition reports, and directly supervises juvenile offenders. Probation staff assigned to this department work with individual youth and families to provide relevant rehabilitative juvenile probation services and programs consistent with community standards and public safety.Units within the department are:
Intake
The Intake Officer is a Juvenile Probation Counselor (JPC) who represents the probation department. He or she provides the judge with answers to any questions on the youth’s previous criminal history, warrants and/or attitude as expressed in notes from previous probation contacts. They can also gather and relate social information such as living arrangements, family support and school attendance, what services are already in place as well as what challenges the youth is experiencing and what some strengths are. The Intake Officer relays and/or makes recommendations on the disposition conditions for the current case being heard. If the youth is released or bailed out of detention, the Intake Officer will monitor any pre-trial release conditions that the court puts in place.
Community Supervision
This unit provides community supervision to youth who are placed on probation by the court. The needs of the youth and family are determined by a risk assessment process which is administered to every youth upon being placed on probation. The risk assessment process enables the probation counselor, the youth and family to focus on certain domains in his/her life that contribute to the offending behavior. The youth and family are referred to services to address these areas. While providing case management services to the families, probation counselors are also responsible for ensuring accountability and community safety.
