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John Augustus Probation

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Probation is a court-ordered sanction. The goal being to retain some control over the offenders while allowing them to remain in the community. Probation first developed in the United States in 1841 with John Augustus, who was a Boston cobbler. He convinced the Boston police to release an adult into his custody instead of sending them to prison. (Klein, 1997) He was successful with this adult that he went back to the courts to ask for another convicted adult to be release under his supervision. Many in the police department and court system did not like this because as long as he was taking inmates they were not getting paid.
Augustus is credited as the “Father of Probation” but before him there were already the practice of suspending a

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