By Terra Avilla
This is technically a week late since Probation Appreciation week was actually last week. So, I apologize.
However, really when you think about it, any week is a good time to recognize our friends over at the Lassen County Probation Department.
Now, most of you, probably have never been on Lassen County Probation, so a lot of their work most likely goes unnoticed to the average citizen.
However, as someone who deals with them almost every week, I can tell you they are out and about in our community trying to make us a safer place. However, they do so much more for us then supervise probationers. They teach youth and adults alike. They volunteer. They give back. They are actively engaged in our community.
There are two main components of the Lassen County Probation Department: Adult and Juvenile Probation.
For the Adult Division, in addition to supervision, Probation is responsible for making sentencing recommendations to the Court as well as coordinating and referring defendants to appropriate services both in and outside of Lassen County.
Regarding the Juvenile Division, Lassen County Probation Department receives referrals for juveniles that are alleged to have committed a criminal offense.
In addition to supervision, the Probation Department is responsible for completing a variety of reports for the Court. Juvenile Probation also administers the Truancy Program, Independent Living Program (ILP) and the Foster Youth Services (FYS) Program in Lassen County.
The Lassen County Probation Department took over coordinating the Independent Living Program in August of 2019. ILP provides life skills for youth in Foster Care to help transition to successful adulthood.
The Foster Youth Services Coordinating Program provides support services to foster children who suffer the traumatic effects of displacement from family, schools, and multiple placements in foster care.
The Juvenile Division also works with several Lassen County schools through their Truancy Program.
This program allows the Probation Department to intervene at a preventative level by providing behavioral services, referring to community partners and preventing juveniles from entering into the juvenile justice system.
The members of both Adult and Juvenile Probation have become some of my very best friends over the years. And during this time I have seen their officers volunteers in almost every way imaginable throughout our community.
For example. They are engaged with the Salvation Army back-to-school shopping event. They assist with Holiday with a Hero. Teach life skills to parents and teens alike. The do river clean-ups, food drives, bell ringing, clothing drives. They support Rotary events, suicide prevention walks, Lassen Family Services, HUSA events, Career fairs, the list literally goes on and on.
They are truly entangled within so many benevolent causes within our community, which spans so much more than supervising probationers.
I also could not write about probation and not mention, my friend Megan, but you guys may know her as Officer Patterson. Being an SRO, I quickly developed a very close working relationship with Juvenile probation.
I was always impressed by how a teen, that was not responding to school staff, or myself, would become a totally different person when they were around their Probation Officer. These kids learn to trust their PO and truly respond to them. That, in and of itself, is pretty impressive.
The Lassen County Probation Department is an integral part of the justice system, providing direct services to the Court, community and offenders and is one of the reasons I love the place we live.
(P.S. Happy 75th anniversary to the Lassen County Probation Department!)
