Probation service

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Probation service at the Itzehoe district court

State probation assistance is part of the third pillar of criminal justice in Germany. It is provided for in Section 56d) of the Criminal Code. In contrast to the “appointed” probation officer , it is an organization . It is committed to the rehabilitation of offenders and tries to offer full-time or voluntary help for self-help. Legally compliant action should be learned and illegal action should be prevented. The institutions of outpatient criminal assistance are organized in numerous professional associations .

History and legal basis

The forerunners of probation assistance in Germany go back to the 19th century. On October 1, 1953, the probation service for young people was created and, a few months later, on January 1, 1954, that for adults. In adult criminal law, §§ 23 ff. Initially regulated probation assistance until it was replaced by §§ 56 and 57 StGB in 1969 with the first criminal law reform law (StrRG). The Youth Courts Act (JGG) provided for parole as early as 1923, but was abolished again in 1943. Today probation assistance in adult criminal law is additionally regulated by Sections 57, 58 and 59 a of the Criminal Code and in juvenile criminal law by Sections 21, 27, 88, and 89 of the JGG. On January 2, 1975, came second penal reform law in force, with the supervision of conduct for the probation service a new clientele in the probation service - Family or test subject is - provided for. If the probation officers had previously looked after convicts whose prognosis was judged to be favorable, they were now approached by a clientele whose prognosis was at least doubtful after their full service or release from the penal system .

tasks and goals

A prison sentence that does not exceed two years, as well as a partially served prison sentence , can be suspended by the court on probation. For the duration of the suspended sentence, the court often places the convicted under the supervision and direction of a probation officer appointed by a court order . The use of probation assistance usually has the effect that early remission is favored.

In juvenile sentences , this instrument applies in principle. The aim of probation assistance is to support integration into society and to prevent further criminal offenses . If the latter succeeds, the convicted person will be released from the sentence after the probationary period has expired.

Probation service tries to achieve this by helping people on probation to lead a life of social responsibility and providing support exclusively through social work or social education . In this case, helping means “helping people to help themselves”. The second main task is to monitor the conditions and instructions imposed on the subjects by the court . In the event of violations of conditions or new criminal offenses, the granted suspension of the custodial sentence can be revoked.

Structural implementation

The implementation of the tasks of the judiciary is a matter for the states. In terms of organization, probation assistance usually belongs to the respective regional court . The actual organization, supervision and implementation of probation assistance must be queried separately for each federal state. Further information on this is available on the websites of the respective ministries of justice, but also on the websites of the higher regional and regional courts.

Baden-Württemberg privatized the probation service and supervision partially from January 1, 2005 and entirely from January 1, 2007. The state of Hamburg is also planning to privatize the probation service. The privatization of probation assistance, analogous to the benefits of the Social Security Code , is controversial because it has not been unequivocally clarified which purpose is to be achieved with privatization, which advantages and disadvantages the decoupling from the public service brings and how the "private" probation assistance has so far been sovereign / can implement government tasks. In contrast to typical (private) service providers, who can and must work in a cost and profit-oriented manner, social work with criminals and the implementation of tasks linked to the judiciary ("enforcement of German criminal regulations") can have no financial advantage, even if they are supported by be implemented in a private company. It can be assumed, however, that the respective countries will save costs, also due to the resulting competition between individual providers and the associated wage reduction, when new employees are hired - also analogous to the other already privatized non-monetary social benefits.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ together with the penal system , and alongside legislation and case law as the other two pillars. see: Günther Kaiser, Heinz Schöch: penal execution. An introduction to the basics. 5th, revised edition, CF Müller, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 978-3-8114-9934-8 , p. 39: "... so-called three-pillar theory of justice ..."
  2. ↑ Wording of §§ 56d StGB (HTML), accessed on June 5, 2018
  3. ↑ Wording of the StGB in Section 56d (4) : "... is appointed by the court ..."
  4. ↑ see § 56d (5) : "The probation officer is a full-time or honorary employee."
  5. ↑ for example:
  6. ^ Alfons Wahl: On the introduction of probation assistance 25 years ago . In: Probation Aid 25, 1978, pp. 5–13
  7. ↑ Eva-Maria Kober: Probation assistance and causes of revocation (Volume 3, New Criminological Studies ). Wilhelm Finck Verlag, Munich 1986, p. 17
  8. ↑ The legal basis of the supervision of conduct was regulated in § 67b and § 68  StGB and in Article 314 of the EGStGB.
  9. ↑ Eva-Maria Kober: Probation assistance and causes of revocation (Volume 3, New Criminological Studies ). Wilhelm Finck Verlag, Munich 1986, p. 19