Probation Officer Interview

For this assignment, I did a face-to-face interview with probation officer, Nuria Avalos. She graduated from the University of Nebraska in Kearney with a bachelor in Criminal Justice and a minor in Spanish. An interest Nuria always found that she wanted to pursue was to help those that needed help but believed they did not need it. Therefore, she felt the job of a probation officer would be an appropriate department in criminal justice to help others with the belief that they did not need it. Nuria has been a probation officer for one year in Lexington, Nebraska. Some of her daily duties include writing reports, documenting, and visiting clients. Occasionally through the week she will attend courts, visit the jail, and do drug test. The qualifications

As a worker for the government Nuria finds that she must be a professional in and out of work. Living in a small town like Lexington, Nuria enjoys staying home after work and avoiding public areas because she is usually more than likely to come across a client. The job of a probation officer changed the way Nuria has trust for people. She is more analytical of body language and of any environment she enters. Challenging parts Nuria finds from being a probation officer is when clients are not compliant to the process and having to send some clients to jail. Spring and summer are usually the busiest seasons of the year for her. Even though the job has some obstacles with it Nuria is passionate about it. She enjoys helping her clients get back on the right track in life. The most challenging part she finds of the job is not letting certain things to impact her and leaving work at the door. For instance, she had a mother crying to her about her son and throughout the rest of the day Nuria kept thinking about the situation. With situations like these, Nuria did agree that if she could change her job she would. She believed being a probation officer for so long would eventually burn her

RISE program stands for Rural Improvement for Schooling and Employment and is available for probationers. The program’s purpose is to increase opportunities for probationers and reduce recidivism. Nuria did some volunteer work in RISE and it helped her get a feel for what type of people her clients would be. Before Nuria became an official probation officer she worked as a drug technician. As a drug technician, she oversaw drug/alcohol testing, collected and disposed of urine specimens, documented results of drug/alcohol testing for case files, and communicated on a regular basis with probation staff. Being a drug technician she gained more effective communication skills with staff and clients. Working directly with different people, Nuria recommended to take some psychology classes. Even though psychology isn’t one’s major Nuria said it would be beneficial to learn about the human mind and