Probation Case Study

History

In 1841 John Augustus a Boston, Massachusetts shoemaker also known as the “father of probation,” first began the practice of probation in the criminal justice system. Mr. Augustus convinced a court judge to release into his custody a convicted offender of “common drunkard”. For three weeks this convicted offender was under Mr. Augustus care. Mr. Augustus found him a job and made him sign a pledge to stop drinking. At the end of the third week, the offender accompanied by Mr. Augustus return to see the judge, the judge was so impressed with his appearance and recovery that he waived the jail sentence, and ordered him pay just the court fees. Encouraged by his success, Mr. Augustus continued to offer assistance to convicted criminals. Before he died in 1859, Mr. Augustus had rescued from prison 2,000 convicts (Shmalleger, 2009). In 1978, the Massachusetts legislature enacted a statute that authorized the city of Boston to hire a probation officer. By 1925, 48 states had implemented probation as sentence. In the same year, the federal government enacted legislation enabling federal district court judges to appoint salary probation officers, and to establish probationary terms (Shmalleger, 2009).

Introduction

Today, probation is the most frequently type of sentencing in the state of Georgia. Presently, there are more that 150,000 probationers in the state of Georgia under supervision. On January of 2014, I was given the opportunity be part of the Athens Clarke County Probation Agency. The Athens Clarke County Probation Agency was established on July 1, 2008, per the request of the judges in Clarke County. This agency has jurisdiction over all misdemeanor offences authorized by statute, including supervision and collectio...

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...he court proceedings.

Furthermore, academic projects play a major role during my internship. One of my projects was related to the Fourth Amendment, due process law, and warrants. While working side by side with the officers, I was made aware of the importance of knowing how to make an arrest warrant. Warrants are made and file when a violation of probation occurs. The warrant must have the name of the officer, the specific violation the probationer is being charge, the name of the probationer, and the basis of probable cause. The officer must swear that the facts given in the warrant are true, and ask for the judge to sign it. As noted by Harr and Hess (2008), the Fourth Amendment requires that to be reasonable, all arrests be made with a warrant based on probable cause. In this case the probable cause is the sentence violation also known as probation violation.