ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the historical development of probation in the United States, and highlights how the practice is used in the twenty-first century. Probation is a court order through which a criminal defendant is placed under the control, supervision, and care of a probation officer in lieu of imprisonment; so long as the probationer maintains certain standards of conduct. The use of probation in the United States has a long history. John Augustus, a Boston shoemaker, is often credited with being the "father of probation". The new supervision strategies include the Proactive Community Supervision (PCS) model, the Strategic Training Initiative in Community Supervision (STICS) model, the Effective Practices in Community Supervision (EPICS) model, and the Staff Training Aimed at Reducing Rearrest (STARR) model. Each of these models seeks to teach probation officers how to more effectively apply the risk, need, and responsivity (RNR) principles within the context of the individual case management meetings with the offenders they supervise.
