Probation officer and correctional treatment specialist responsibilities are to discuss with offenders how such issues as drug and alcohol abuse and anger management problems might have played roles in their criminal behavior.

Write reports describing offenders' progress; arrange for medical, mental health, or substance abuse treatment services according to individual needs or court orders; prepare and maintain case folder for each assigned inmate or offender; gather information about offenders' backgrounds by talking to offenders, their families and friends, and other people who have relevant information; develop liaisons and networks with other parole officers, community agencies, correctional institutions, psychiatric facilities, and aftercare agencies to plan for helping offenders with life adjustments; inform offenders or inmates of requirements of conditional release, such as office visits, restitution payments, or educational and employment stipulations.

Develop and prepare packets containing information about social service agencies, assistance organizations, and programs that might be useful for inmates or offenders; recommend remedial action or initiate court action in response to noncompliance with terms of probation or parole; interview probationers and parolees regularly to evaluate their progress in accomplishing goals and maintaining the terms specified in their probation contracts and rehabilitation plans; administer drug and alcohol tests, including random drug screens of offenders, to verify compliance with substance abuse treatment programs; conduct prehearing and presentencing investigations and testify in court regarding offenders' backgrounds and recommended sentences and sentencing conditions; develop rehabilitation programs for assigned offenders or inmates, establishing rules of conduct, goals, and objectives; provide offenders or inmates with assistance in matters concerning detainers, sentences in other jurisdictions, writs, and applications for social assistance; arrange for postrelease services, such as employment, housing, counseling, education, and social activities.

Supervise people on community-based sentences, such as electronically monitored home detention, and provide field supervision of probationers by conducting curfew checks or visits to home, work, or school; identify and approve work placements for offenders with community service sentences; participate in decisions about whether cases should go before courts and which court should hear them; investigate alleged parole violations, using interviews, surveillance, and search and seizure; recommend appropriate penitentiary for initial placement of an offender; assess the suitability of penitentiary inmates for release under parole and statutory release programs and submit recommendations to parole boards.