What Is a Probation Officer?

By Dr. Jarrod Sadulski  |  03/24/2026

When people ask what a probation officer does, the answer can be complex. Probation officers have a substantial amount of responsibility and have an important role in ensuring public safety.

Probation officers commonly supervise offenders as a part of their court sentencing in criminal court. Also, probation officers monitor offenders with substance abuse problems. Released offenders may be required to submit to drug testing and other conditions of offender rehabilitation, and that is managed by probation officers.

Both probation officers and parole officers have an important role in community supervision, but these careers are different. Probation officers work with offenders who have been sentenced to a period of probation instead of jail or prison.

Receiving probation is a common way to reduce jail or prison overpopulation in the legal system. For first-time or minor offenses, criminals commonly receive probation.

This probation may be issued as part of correctional treatment or as part of a suspended sentence. In those cases, offenders may be required to finish a prison term if they violate their conditions of probation.

What Does a Probation Officer Do?

Probation officers serve in both the field and in an office setting such as a probation office. Probation officers are responsible for various types of work, either at the federal level or a state level.

For instance, probation officers commonly conduct pre-sentence investigations in federal court or state court. These pre-sentence investigations help to assess an offender’s risk and establish probation terms.

Also, probation officers supervise offenders after their sentencing in court hearings. For offenders who have to do community service as a part of their probation, probation officers manage the work of those offenders.

In addition, probation officers provide referrals to substance abuse practitioners and other correctional treatment specialists, as well as manage rehabilitation programs. Effective rehabilitation can help to ensure that offenders become productive citizens, and it is often based on job training, job placement, and treatment programs.

For example, probation officers work with court orders to ensure that offenders adhere to rehabilitation plans. Probation officers also work with treatment providers and community agencies involved in probation.

The court may require probation officers to conduct criminal background checks, home visits, and work visits, which can be important in protecting public safety. Probation officers report probation violations and any further criminal behavior to the court. That reporting commonly results in imprisonment, especially for anyone who engages in criminal behavior while on probation.

My Experience Working with Probation Officers

During my career in law enforcement, I worked closely with probation officers. Sometimes, I came across an individual on probation during a traffic stop or a suspicious person call. I would then contact that person’s probation officer from the field to ensure that the person’s probation conditions were being met.

In some cases, I was informed that the person had not followed their conditions, which resulted in a probation violation. Courts take probation violations seriously. In my experience, any violations of probation typically led to an inability to post bond until the offender saw the judge.

Probation Officers Differ from Other Officers

It should be noted that police officers, probation officers, and correctional officers have different governing systems. Police officers fall under the authority of law enforcement, and probation officers fall under the authority of the court system. By contrast, correctional officers fall under the authority of the corrections branch of the justice system.

Probation officers differ from parole officers, but both are responsible for supervising offenders. Parole officers work with offenders who are released early from their prison term. If parole conditions are met, offenders can be released and permitted to serve the remainder of their sentence within a community.

Parole officers work as correctional treatment specialists and may conduct criminal investigations when parolees violate their parole terms. Parole officers may also conduct parole supervision through home visits and property searches. They are actively involved to ensure law offenders do not commit additional offenses.

Parole officers may require parolees to submit to drug testing as a condition of their parole. As correctional treatment specialists, parole officers monitor parolees to ensure community supervision conditions are met.

Particularly, parole officers ensure compliance with parole board conditions set for the offender. Parole officers may manage training programs for the offender and commonly coordinate with rehabilitation and reentry services such as housing, employment, and treatment programs.

Parole officers support rehabilitation by ensuring that the parolee has the best opportunity to succeed on parole. To support rehabilitation, parole officers may even help parolees access transitional housing.

Why Transitional Housing Is Important for Parolees

For the past several years, I have volunteered with a faith-based organization and worked with current and former prison inmates. As a part of correctional treatment, I have provided services such as:

• Life skills training
• Lessons on how to be a father while incarcerated
• Anger management training

While I did this work as a criminologist and not in an official capacity, I have taught current and former prison inmates to ensure that they have the best opportunity to succeed, whether they’re on parole or released after their sentence.

In addition, I have worked alongside correctional treatment specialists. Correctional treatment specialists manage rehabilitation programs within a prison.

From this experience, I found that transitional housing for parolees and former inmates is a highly important component of successful reintegration into society. Good transitional housing programs offer both shelter and employment.

However, the most important element of transitional housing that provides the best opportunity for someone to avoid reoffending is accountability. While in prison, an inmate lives in a very structured and disciplined environment.

Violations of prison rules have severe consequences, such as being assigned to a special housing unit that no one wants to go to. Strict discipline when an offender is in prison is part of the rehabilitation process and correctional treatment.

The reason why accountability in transitional housing is essential to ensure parole conditions are met is because it ensures accountability to parolees already accustomed to prison discipline. Accountability in transitional housing can include:

• Various forms of counseling
• The establishment of rules that must be followed to remain in transitional housing

Some of the most effective transitional housing programs that I have seen involve fully rehabilitated former inmates who serve as peer counselors. Someone who has succeeded in reentry into society after prison can help new parolees by relating to the post-release challenges that they experience.

They can help new parolees navigate temptations that can result in a crime. Successful former inmates can also serve as support systems to ensure offenders become productive citizens.

When someone returns to the same community that they lived in before their incarceration and subsequent parole, it’s been my experience that it often leads to recidivism. Those parolees may end up associating with past peers who led them to criminal activity, especially in high-crime areas that are a threat to community safety.

Probation Requirements

Court orders typically require probation officers to supervise specific aspects of probation. For example, someone on probation for a crime such as gang involvement or gang crimes may be required to avoid any affiliation or communication with known gang members.

Offenders on probation are required to follow all federal, state, and local laws to avoid a violation of probation. Probation conditions may include:

• Seeking employment
• Participating in activities such as community service or treatment programs
• Not leaving a state or the U.S. without permission
• Allowing home and workplace visits by probation officers

Other conditions that probation officers supervise include:

• Paying restitution to victims
• Paying court fees
• Avoiding illegal drugs or alcohol
• Completing substance abuse treatment programs
• Complying with court-issued, no-contact orders (used in domestic violence cases)
• Obeying curfews and firearms prohibition
• Wearing an electronic monitor
• Complying with sex offender registration
• Staying away from victims or witnesses

The Role of Probation Officers in Public Safety

Through their work, probation officers have an essential role in protecting the community through offender accountability and compliance with court orders. Probation officers have a substantial amount of influence on the lives of those who they supervise while they are on probation. Ultimately, their work helps to reduce recidivism.

The Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice at APU

For students interested in studying different areas of criminal justice, American Public University (APU) offers an online Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice. For this degree program, students can enroll in courses such as corrections and incarceration, the criminal process, criminal law and constitutional law. Other courses include U.S. law enforcement and criminology.

Students can choose one of four concentrations to take the courses suited to their professional goals:

• Entrepreneurship
• Organizational law enforcement leadership
• General
• Maritime law enforcement

For more details, visit APU’s security and global studies degree program page.

Note: This degree program is not designed to meet the educational requirements for professional licensure or certification in any country, state, province or other jurisdiction. This program has not been approved by any state professional licensing body and does not lead to any state-issued professional licensure.