Former Prosecutor
Probation
Probation Is A Form Of Community Supervision Requiring Specified Contacts
Probation is a form of community supervision requiring specified contacts with parole and probation officers and other terms and conditions as provided by statute. Probation is supervision and control with the hope of rehabilitation. On the other hand community control is a program where the offender is restricted within the community home or non institutional residential placement center, in essence a form of house arrest.
When a defendant is sentenced a Judge may impose a sentence of probation, community control or jail. A court may place a defendant on probation and withhold adjudication of guilt (which is not a conviction under state law); this remedy is completely discretionary. A defendant who has been charged with a narcotics offenses upon conviction may be placed on drug offender probation; This is a strict form of supervision emphasizing drug treatment and counseling, supervised by probation officers with more restricted case loads
If a person violates the terms of his probation or community control he may be taken into custody and face a probation violation hearing; If convicted a defendant may be sentenced to the full term of his original statutory charge; skilled defense counsel must therefor be familiar with the law concerning probation violations; Probation violations must be intentional and if they are not this lack of intentional conduct may be raised. as a defense at the probation violation hearing;
Defense attorneys must also be familiar with rules concerning out of state probationers, placement of a probationer in a residential or nonresidential facility and restitution center or private drug treatment program, the effect of an imposition of a fine during probation, prohibition against vague conditions of probation,and when objections to conditions of probation must be raised as well as rules concerning modification of community control and probation and termination of probation and community control on an earlier basis then the original sentence. Restitution rules as a condition of probation are equally important.
Similar rules apply to the application of supervised release and supervised release hearings in the federal system .
Criminal Law in Florida: All Topics, More about Mr. Cohen’s Law Firm
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