The Volunteer's Role in Municipal Court Probation

Abstract

The Royal Oak Municipal Court, deeply concerned about its inability to rehabilitate offenders and lacking the funds to insti tute a probation program, appealed to the community for help. At first eight persons volunteered to become probation counselors; as time went on some businessmen and clubs donated money. Now, three and a half years later, the court has a probation program that includes presentence investigation, free psycho logical and psychiatric evaluations, an employment counseling service, its own chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous, a church- related program; a staff of six part-time counselors, a psychiatrist in charge of both group and individual psychotherapy, 150 volunteers who act as probationer sponsors, and financial con tributors. The article details the growth of this voluntary pro gram and shows how a community gave of itself—warmly, freely, and without thought of monetary gain—so that its court could institute and maintain an inspirational program of re-education and rehabilitation of the misdemeanant.