Section 2 Probation/Parole Supervision

Probation/parole supervision aims to prevent persons under probation/parole supervision from repeating offenses or delinquency and to facilitate their reformation and rehabilitation through leading positive lives in a community. Probation/parole supervision is implemented through cooperation between probation officers and volunteer probation officers (VPOs or Hogoshi in Japan). Probation officers and VPOs maintain contact with persons under probation/parole supervision through interviews in order to observe their lives in society, and provide them with any needed instruction and supervision to ensure that they can follow their conditions for probation/parole supervision. Probation officers and VPOs also provide persons under probation/parole supervision with guidance and assistance to secure residences and find jobs so they can become self-supporting.

Persons under probation/parole supervision include [1] those placed under probation as a protective measure based on a decision made by a family court (juvenile probationers), [2] those granted parole from juvenile training schools and placed under parole supervision (juvenile training school parolees), [3] those granted parole from penal institutions and placed under parole supervision (parolees), [4] those granted full or partial suspension of execution of their sentence and placed under probation (probationers), and [5] those granted parole from a women’s guidance home and placed under parole supervision (women’s guidance home parolees).