Probation Work

Introduction

The way the criminal justice system works changed because of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (CJA 2003) which came into force in April 2005.

One of the major changes was to the sentencing options available to Magistrates' and Crown Courts. Some sentences disappeared, for example, the Community Rehabilitation Order. They were replaced by one generic Community Order with a range of requirements.

The aim of the Act was to reduce crime and re-offending by modernising the Criminal Justice System from end to end - from arrest, to prosecution to effective sentencing action by courts and rehabilitation of offenders. The intention remains to provide tough, effective sentences designed to reduce offending and introduce measures to enable successful rehabilitation and to protect the public.

For the Probation Service, the Act brought radical changes to the way we work.  We now manage offenders in a different way to pre 2005.  In particular, we seek to ensure each offender has one allocated probation officer throughout their time under probation supervision.