What we do
Services
We are dedicated to serving the Barbadian community, our courts, and the people who come before the courts.
Eight services
Select a service to read what it involves, who it is for and how it works.
Case management plans are tailored for each client to address their criminogenic needs, guide and inform decisions and make referrals to appropriate resource services and treatment interventions. The application of validated assessment tools and addressing the needs of clients on a case by case basis, has a positive impact and positions the client for success.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) involves the use of a neutral third party to assist the parties in communicating, discussing their differences, and resolving their disputes. It is a technique that allows individuals and groups to retain cohesion, social order, and the ability to lessen antagonism.
The management team and officers of the Barbados Probation Service have been trained in Alternative Dispute Resolution through the Faculty of Law, University of Windsor.
The aim of Prison Aftercare and Welfare Services (PAW) is to promote rehabilitation and integration through the use of effective programmes, counselling and social support networking. The goal of the intervention is to boost offenders' motivation to change by helping them understand the origins of their offending behaviours. Our mandate is to foster healthy attitudes in addition to equipping them with the necessary skills with the hope of reducing the incidence of recidivism.
Objectives
- Assisting a released individual to overcome their current challenges
- Extending help, counselling, guidance and support.
- Impressing on the individual to adjust his/her habits attitudes, approaches and values to a rationale appreciation of social responsibilities, obligations and the requirements of community living.
- Helping the individual to make satisfactory re-adjustments with his/her family, community and work environment.
- Assisting in the process of the individual’s physical, mental, vocational, economic, social and post-release transition and ultimate rehabilitation.
Community service is aimed at promoting rehabilitation and reducing re-offending through restorative justice. Client involvement in projects and individual placements provide much needed support to agencies while imparting the client with insight into a working environment and enhancing discipline and work ethic.
Community service is performed in a range of placement sites including individual placements within local government agencies and charitable organizations as well as large scale beach, parks and community clean-ups.
Clients are sentenced to a minimum of eighty (80) hours and a maximum of two hundred and forty (240) hours of service depending upon the nature and circumstance surrounding the offence. They are typically placed within the parish in which they reside and commence work within ten (10) working days.
Pre-sentencing reports are an integral component of the work of the Barbados Probation Service. The reports are a sentencing tool that serve to aid the Magistrate’s and Supreme courts, providing an objective comprehensive picture of the individual before the court. Pre-sentencing reports encompass the social and personal history of the offender in addition to future potential criminal and other relevant matters, thus enabling the court to determine the most appropriate sentence in the specific circumstances. Pre-sentencing reports also provide the foundation for continuing treatment and rehabilitation of the offender.
Listed below are the programmes and camps currently run by the Barbados Probation Service.
- Girls Empowerment Circle (Ages 12-16)
- AS MAN (Ages 12-16)
- AS MAN II (Ages 17-24)
- Transition Unit (Ages 11-16)
- Summer Camps
By developing a strong knowledge-based foundation, the programme seeks to generate awareness amongst the participants and assists them in becoming cognizant of the options available to effectively diffuse conflict thereby fostering a healthy parent/child relationship and ultimately strengthening the family unit.
In the first instance officers of the Department work with schools to implement pre-emptive measures and interactive sessions for students in order to stem the flow of deviant behaviour. These sessions adopt a humanistic approach to changing behavioural patterns and exploring interpretations of events and life outlooks of students. The second component involves officers facilitating panel discussions, presentations and other community-based efforts as practical methods of diverting at-risk youth from the justice system.
Need to speak with someone?
Our officers answer Monday to Friday, 8:15 AM to 4:30 PM.
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Reports, programmes and news from the Probation Service. We send a few messages a year and never share your address.