Problems in Juvenile Probation
Problems in juvenile probation can cause long term headaches for teens and their families.
Problems currently facing the juvenile probation system in every state of the nation center on a lack of resources and manpower to effectively monitor and serve juvenile offenders.
The juvenile probation system is in operation in every state of the country and comes into play with virtually every child who enters the juvenile corrections system. There are two different ways that the juvenile probation department may become involved in a case:
- When a first offender or someone with a low grade offense enters the system they may be analyzed and assessed by the probation department, or they may receive a period of probation instead of any jail time. The probation employees will then be assigned to monitor them while on probation or while doing community service.
- Once a juvenile offender has been convicted and served their time in jail, they will often be monitored for a period of time through the probation department. For repeat offenders a probation officer may be involved with the offender for longer periods of time.
The problems in juvenile probation departments across the country tend to be centered upon a lack of resources. The resources lacking include:
- Financial Support
- Staff Members
- Programs
The lack of staff members to handle the many juvenile cases that come into the probation department and the lack of programs that may help juveniles on probation are a direct result of the lack of financial support that most juvenile probation departments receive. Since there isn’t a lot of money in the system, probation officers and their support staff are overworked and have far too many cases than they can realistically handle.
The problem here is that staff members are overworked and have to allow some cases to “slip through the cracks” in many cases. They simply cannot give the attention that is needed to every case, so they are more likely to miss things and not check up on some juveniles as often as they really should.
There is also a lot of frustration over the lack of resources in many juvenile probation departments have to help juveniles in the system. If there were more restorative justice programs such as counseling programs, anger management programs, and peer-based programs that teach alternative behaviors, there may be less juveniles in the probation system in the future.
That would take a lot of pressure off of juvenile probation officers so more attention can be placed on cases that do need to be in the system for longer periods of time.