Juvenile Probation System

Every now and then, adolescents move off the straight and narrow path of prosperity; leading them to run against the law instead of with it. It is important to help these children get back on the right track, and start moving towards a more productive life. This is the main goal of juvenile probation in the United States. The juvenile probation system has developed with the evolution of the juvenile justice and court system in America; as a way to separate young lawbreakers from adult criminals. As some sort of feedback to the harshness of the criminal law system during the 1800s was the effort to keep young lawbreakers out of institutions. The traditional role of the Probation Officer, working primarily from the office and seeing the client on a limited basis, is now shifting to include more face-to-face contact in the youth’s own environment. Over the last century, juvenile probation has enhanced the lives of many delinquents by changing their mindsets and helping them change their lives for the better.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, children who committed crimes often were imprisoned with adults. Reformers, however, criticized this practice, and houses of refuge, later called reform schools, were

It was at this point that society began wanting to see juveniles who commit serious crimes to be treated and sentenced as adults. Regardless, even by the 1990s, probation was still a vital aspect of the juvenile justice system and more than half of the minors tried in juvenile courts were sentenced to probation rather than given a prison sentence. Today, juvenile probation is much like the 1990s; it serves as a sanction for juveniles adjudicated in court, and in many cases as a way of diverting status offenders or first-time juvenile offenders from the court