Free Sample
The Complete Guide to Becoming A Probation Officer and Correctional Treatment Specialist
The honest, no-nonsense guide to what probation officers really do, what they earn, how to get hired, and whether you have what it takes to do the job well.
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: What Does a Probation Officer and Correctional Treatment Specialist Actually Do?
Let's start by clearing away the movie version of this job. You are not a detective kicking down doors, and you are not a therapist in a cozy office. You are the person in the middle. You supervise adults and juveniles who have been convicted of a crime and sentenced to probation instead of prison, or who are released from prison on parole. Your job is to make sure they follow the rules of their release, while also giving them a realistic chance to get their lives together. It is a job of constant tension between enforcement and support, and you are responsible for holding that tension every single day.
The core of the work is supervision. You will have a caseload, and that caseload will be large. In many state and federal systems, a probation officer carries between 60 and 100 offenders on their roster at any one time. In some high-volume urban jurisdictions, that number can climb to 150 or more. Each person on that list has court-ordered conditions: they must report to you regularly, they must not commit new crimes, they must attend treatment or classes, they must maintain employment, and they must pay fines or restitution. Your primary task is to track all of this, for all of your people, all at once.
So what does that look like on a Tuesday morning? You start your day by checking your voicemail and email.