Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist Provide social services to assist in rehabilitation of law offenders in custody or on probation or parole. Make recommendations for actions involving formulation of rehabilitation plan and treatment of offender, including conditional release and education and employment stipulations.
Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist is Also Know as
In different settings, Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist is titled as
- Adult Probation Officer
- Correctional Counselor
- Deputy Probation Officer (DPO)
- Juvenile Probation Officer
- Parole Agent
- Parole Officer (PO)
- Probation Agent
- Probation and Parole Officer
- Probation Counselor
- Probation Officer
Education and Training of Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist
Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Education Required for Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Degrees Related to Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist
- Bachelor in Social Work
- Associate Degree Courses in Social Work
- Masters Degree Courses in Social Work
Training Required for Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist in different industries are
- Correctional Officers and Jailers
- Child, Family, and School Social Workers
- First-Line Supervisors of Correctional Officers
- Rehabilitation Counselors
- Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers
- Social and Human Service Assistants
- Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers
- Mental Health Counselors
- Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors
- Healthcare Social Workers
- Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
- Detectives and Criminal Investigators
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives
- Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers
- Psychiatric Technicians
- Social and Community Service Managers
- Bailiffs
- Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates
- Eligibility Interviewers, Government Programs
What Do Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist do?
- Prepare and maintain case folder for each assigned inmate or offender.
- Write reports describing offenders' progress.
- Inform offenders or inmates of requirements of conditional release, such as office visits, restitution payments, or educational and employment stipulations.
- Discuss with offenders how such issues as drug and alcohol abuse and anger management problems might have played roles in their criminal behavior.
- Gather information about offenders' backgrounds by talking to offenders, their families and friends, and other people who have relevant information.
- Develop rehabilitation programs for assigned offenders or inmates, establishing rules of conduct, goals, and objectives.
- Develop liaisons and networks with other parole officers, community agencies, correctional institutions, psychiatric facilities, and aftercare agencies to plan for helping offenders with life adjustments.
- Arrange for medical, mental health, or substance abuse treatment services according to individual needs or court orders.
- Provide offenders or inmates with assistance in matters concerning detainers, sentences in other jurisdictions, writs, and applications for social assistance.
- Arrange for postrelease services, such as employment, housing, counseling, education, and social activities.
- Recommend remedial action or initiate court action in response to noncompliance with terms of probation or parole.
- Interview probationers and parolees regularly to evaluate their progress in accomplishing goals and maintaining the terms specified in their probation contracts and rehabilitation plans.
- Assess the suitability of penitentiary inmates for release under parole and statutory release programs and submit recommendations to parole boards.
- Investigate alleged parole violations, using interviews, surveillance, and search and seizure.
- Conduct prehearing and presentencing investigations and testify in court regarding offenders' backgrounds and recommended sentences and sentencing conditions.
- Recommend appropriate penitentiary for initial placement of an offender.
- Participate in decisions about whether cases should go before courts and which court should hear them.
- Identify and approve work placements for offenders with community service sentences.
- Develop and prepare packets containing information about social service agencies, assistance organizations, and programs that might be useful for inmates or offenders.
- Administer drug and alcohol tests, including random drug screens of offenders, to verify compliance with substance abuse treatment programs.
- Supervise people on community-based sentences, such as electronically monitored home detention, and provide field supervision of probationers by conducting curfew checks or visits to home, work, or school.
Qualities of Good Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist
- Breathalyzers
- Desktop computers
- Dictating equipment
- Drug testing kits
- Electronic tracking devices
- Laptop computers
- Laser facsimile machines
- Law enforcement handguns
- Metal handcuffs
- Mobile radios
- Multiline telephone systems
- Passenger cars
- Personal computers
- Photocopying equipment
- Plastic handcuffs
- Protective body armor
- Side-handle batons
- Tablet computers
- Upper body restraints
- Urine testing kits
- Videoconferencing equipment
Technology Skills required for Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialist
- Appointment scheduling software
- Case management software
- Corel WordPerfect Office Suite
- Court records databases
- Customer relationship management CRM software
- Electronic tracking device software
- Email software
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Speech recognition software
- Tyler Technologies Odyssey Case Manager
- Web browser software
- Word processing software