Criminal Justice System Probation Is

Criminal justice system probation is a particular kind of sentence for criminal defendants. The judicial power to order a sentence of probation is granted in statutes at both the federal and state levels. Normally, probation allows a convicted person to go free with a suspended sentence for a particular period in which the person engages in good behavior. Probationers are placed under the administration of a probation officer and must complete certain conditions.

If the probationer breaches a stipulation of probation, the court may place added restrictions on the person or order the probationer to serve their term of imprisonment (Probation, 2012). In order for the court to determine a person's risk for reoffending an offender will be given a risk/needs assessment. This assessment allows a probation officer to take an overall look at each individual offender in order to assess their particular situation (Juvenile Probation Services, 2012).

John Smith's initial assessment scale calculated out to be a risk scale for 6-18 or regular supervision and a needs scale of 1-10 which is also regular supervision. The initial client assessment form is intended to aid the probation department to determine the level of supervision that a person needs in order to respond to where they are in their life at the moment. In John Smith's case he has had just enough contact with the legal system to fall into the scale of needing regular supervision.

The assessment has two different measurements that it gauges. The first is the risk assessment. This section looks at a person's prior contact with the legal system and its severity. It also measures the behaviors of doing drugs and alcohol in order to gauge risk for future contacts with the legal system. This section also looks at a person's overall attitude and life skills in order to see if there are any deficiencies. In the case of John Smith he scored relative well on this section.

His major issues were his previous contacts with the probation system at a young age and his current adjudications. The rest of this section did not score John any points either bad or good since he appears to have a relatively stable home life in which he does not do drugs or alcohol. The other measurement that this assessment gauges is that of needs. This section looks at what things that a person may be lacking in that would make them exhibit the behavior that they are currently displaying.

It also looks at what things might be going on that would cause a person to reoffend at some later point in time. In John's case the things that are brought to light in his assessment are that he has issues with family relationships. His relationship with his parents and especially his mother appear to be his motivating factor for getting into trouble. It seems that ever since his sister was born there has been a strain in the relationship that John has with his mother.

It has been theorized that John misbehaves in order to gain his mothers attention. It does not appear that John has any other issues in regards to the needs assessment section. He did well in school when he was enrolled and has shown a desire.