<P> One may note that there is considerably more extralegal information contained within the PSIR . This is important because many have seen this as suggestive of sentencing disparities or inequality in the treatment of offenders with a lower socioeconomic status or little to few ties to the community, but As Alarid and Montemayor (2010, p. 130) state, "The use of extralegal factors becomes especially important in that the PSIR identifies needs related to the defendant's criminal behavior for future treatment intervention services" </P> <P> The report is immediately to help the court determine an appropriate sentence and also serves other purposes . Since the advent of the sentencing guidelines, the importance of the presentence report has increased because the document is now designed to frame factual and legal issues for sentencing . Thereafter, if a defendant is incarcerated, the Bureau of Prisons or State Department of Corrections will use information in the report to designate the institution where the offender will serve the sentence and determine the offender's eligibility or need for specific correctional programs . Also, depending on the jurisdiction, the presentence report can be used to calculate the release date . The probation officer assigned responsibility for the offender's case during probation and supervised release will use the report to make an initial assessment of case needs and risks . Additionally, the report may be used as a source of information for future research . </P> <P> Whether interviewing or reviewing documents, the probation officer must weigh the evidence based on the best available information . The final report must contain only accurate information . The goal is to produce a report that the court may rely upon at sentencing . Though it is inevitable that there will be data that the probation officer is unable to verify, that information should be clearly identified . The probation officer must distinguish between facts and the inferences, opinions, or conclusions based upon those facts . </P> <P> When a defendant is referred for a presentence investigation, the officer must immediately begin to gather the facts . Though the procedure varies somewhat from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, the officer usually conducts several aspects of the investigation concurrently to ensure that the presentence report is submitted to the court on time . Since officers routinely conduct multiple presentence investigation simultaneously, meeting the deadlines can be difficult . </P>

Who is responsible for preparing the presentence investigation report