Samenvatting

The probation service gives advice to the court tens of thousands of time each year, coordinates tens of thousands of community service orders, and supervises tens of thousands of offenders. This is done professionally and takes place without much incidents or problems. However, the probation is not very well known to the general public. The identity of probation is also ambiguous and therefore not strong. There is less appreciation for the probation than they deserve. This can be met by making the probation service responsible for the implementation of all community-based sanctions (suspended sentences and other conditional modalities and community service orders), similar to the responsibility of the prison system for custodial sanctions and measures. Secondly, by differentiation in the nature and intensity of activities. Many probation clients do well. They represent only a low risk, and probation involvement may be limited. For other clients, more is needed: more activities, greater intensity and focus on criminogenic needs. It is proposed to distinguish between probation and probation plus. In both, probation supervision and community service are at the center, but the plus version is emphatically more focused on rehabilitation and reintegration, and thus on minimizing recidivism. This requires more efforts by the probation service. It also requires adapting the organization: one probation organization that is accountable and responsible for the implementation of community-based sanctions, but with the possibility to outsource work if special expertise and special activities are required.