Criminal Justice Services (Probation Services)
Criminal Justice Services (Probation Services)
Now known as criminal justice services, probation services emerged as a method of preventing offenders from re-offending in the early 20th century, initially led by charities and churches. In 1905 Glasgow Corporation set up a committee which recommended that the Chief Constable appoint police officers to act as probation officers.[1] These probation officers were to provide guidance to the district police courts on offenders’ circumstances and to supervise offenders on instruction from the courts. The Probation of Offenders Act 1907 required sheriffs in counties and magistrates in burghs (i.e. police burghs, royal burghs and parliamentary burghs) to appoint probation officers. Their salaries were paid by the local authorities and they were controlled by the sheriff courts or burgh police courts.[2] The Probation of Offenders (Scotland) Act 1931 gave the responsibilities to employ probation officers to large burghs and counties and required the councils to appoint probation committees.[3] The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1949 detailed the duties of probation officers including providing reports on adults to assist courts in determining the most appropriate sentence and reports on the suitability of young people for Borstal training.[4] The Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 gave county councils and councils of large burghs a responsibility to supervise and care for people released from prison and put on probation, and to provide background reports for the courts when required.[5] These responsibilities were transferred to regional and islands councils in 1975 and to the unitary councils in 1996.[6] The name criminal justice services replaced probation services after the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 replaced probation orders, community service orders and supervised attendance orders with community payback orders.[7]
Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2021)
Related Knowledge Base entries
Bibliography
City of Glasgow, Probation. A Brief Survey of Fifty Years of the Probation Service of the City of Glasgow 1905–1955. (City of Glasgow Probation Area Committee, 1955)
Kilbrandon Report, Children and Young Persons (Scotland). Cmnd 2306. (HMSO, 1964)
McNeill, Fergus, & Bill Whyte, Reducing Reoffending: Social work and community justice in Scotland (Willan Publishing, 2007)
References
[1] Fergus McNeill ‘Remembering probation in Scotland’ Probation Journal. The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice 52(1) 2005 pp. 23-38.
[2] Probation of Offenders Act 1907 (7 Edw. VII c.17).
[3] Probation of Offenders (Scotland) Act 1931 (21 & 22 Geo. V c.30).
[4] Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1949 (12, 13 & 14 Geo. VI c.94).
[5] Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 (c.49).
[6] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c.65) s.161; Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 (c.39).
[7] Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 (asp 10).