01. May 08
Probation supervision has been provided for ten years on 1 May. It has been a successful period – there are four probation supervision regions in Estonia with a total of 230 officers.
According to the Director of the Rehabilitation Division of the Ministry of Justice, Rait Kuuse, the probation supervision system has undergone turbulent development: while in the beginning the probation officers provided the simplest type of supervision, they now deal with very diverse target groups. “For example, they are involved in organising community service, behaviour monitoring, application of electronic supervision and in dealing with minor offenders. The total number of people under probation supervision is constantly around 8000,Kuuse explained.
“The greatest change will take place on 1 June 2008 when the probation supervision is included into the framework of prison service,” Rait Kuuse noted. From 1 June the probation supervision departments which have until now operated as the structural units of courts will be transferred to the area of administration of the prisons in Tallinn, Tartu and Viru County.
Despite the rapid development and constant reforming as many as 50 probation officers have been worked in the system from the beginning. These dedicated and hard-working officials are acknowledged at the joint conference of the prison and probation supervision system dedicated to the anniversary of probation supervision held on 23 May.
The criminal supervision system was launched on 1 May 1998. In the first stage 13 criminal supervision departments with 110 probation supervision officers started working in county and city courts. The whole of Estonia was divided into regions and all the major towns and county centres had probation supervision departments or services (total number 35).
At present there are four probation supervision regions: Harju, Tartu, Pärnu and Viru with 230 officers.
