Family Probation Court

This afternoon we visited with several POs and the manager from Family Probation Court. First of all, Family Court in Poland is not like Family Court in the U.S. Family Probation Court serves all cases involving juvenille offenders, offenders with alcohol or other substance related issues, and their version of our ChINA cases.

This unit of 11 Professional Probation Officers supervises 13,500 cases. In addition to the above named categories of clients, POs complete the equivalent of our Presentence Investigation on 20-30 clients per month. The POs in this unit also are responsible for supervised visits, emergency removals of children, supervision of foster families, and supervision of court appointed guardians for the chronically mentally ill.

During this meeting we had the opportunity to talk to the staff about the nature of the work they do. They identified that child removals are the most difficult part of their job. The staff was able to identify several things that they do to reduce their own vicarious trauma, including formal and informal support of each other, regular staffings of clients, debriefing of difficult situations, etc.

Substance abuse related cases, which are primarily alcohol related, are dealt with solely by the family probation court. All clients who are charged with an alcohol related offense are not necessarily court ordered to treatment. At times they are court ordered and the other times they must agree to treatment or they can not be required to attend by their PO. When they are court ordered to treatment, they have two years to complete, then if they have not completed, then the PO applies for revocation.