<P> Offenders are ordinarily required to refrain from possession of firearms, and may be ordered to remain employed or participate in an educational program, abide to a curfew, live at a directed place, obey the orders of the probation officer, or not leave the jurisdiction . The probationer might be ordered as well to refrain from contact with the victims (such as a former partner in a domestic violence case), with potential victims of similar crimes (such as minors, if the instant offense involves child sexual abuse), or with known criminals, particularly co-defendants . Additionally, the restrictions can include a ban on possession or use of alcoholic beverages, even if alcohol was not involved in the original criminal charges . Offenders on probation might be fitted with an electronic tag (or monitor), which signals their movement to officials . Also, offenders have been ordered to submit to repeat alcohol / drug testing or to participate in alcohol / drug or psychological treatment, or to perform community service work . Some courts permit defendants of limited means to perform community service in order to pay off their probation fines . </P> <P> The concept of probation, from the Latin, probatio, "testing," has historical roots in the practice of judicial reprieve . In English common law, prior to the advent of democratic rule, the courts could temporarily suspend the execution of a sentence to allow a criminal defendant to appeal to the monarch for a pardon . </P> <P> Probation first developed in the United States when John Augustus, a Boston cobbler, persuaded a judge in the Boston Police Court in 1841 to give him custody of a convicted offender, a "drunkard," for a brief period and then helped the man to appear rehabilitated by the time of sentencing . Even earlier, the practice of suspending a sentence was used as early as 1830 in Boston, Massachusetts, and became widespread in U.S. courts, although there was no statutory provision for such a practice . At first, judges, most notably Peter Oxenbridge Thatcher of Boston, used "release on recognizance" or bail and simply refrained from taking any further action . In 1878 the mayor of Boston had hired a former police officer, the ironically named "Captain Savage," to become what many recognize as the first official probation officer . By the mid-19th century, however, many Federal Courts were using a judicial reprieve to suspend sentence, and this posed a legal question . In 1916, the United States Supreme Court, in the Killets Decision, held that a Federal Judge (Killets) was without power to suspend a sentence indefinitely . This decision led to the passing of the National Probation Act of 1925, thereby, allowing courts to suspend the imposition of incarceration and place an offender on probation . Probation developed from the efforts of a philanthropist, John Augustus, who looked for ways to rehabilitate the behavior of criminals . </P> <P> Massachusetts developed the first statewide probation system in 1878, and by 1920, 21 other states had followed suit . With the passage of the National Probation Act on March 5, 1925, signed by President Calvin Coolidge, the U.S. Federal Probation Service was established . On the state level, pursuant to the Crime Control and Consent Act of 1936, a group of states entered into an agreement wherein they would supervise probationers and parolees who reside in each other's jurisdictions on each other's behalf . Known as the Interstate Compact For the Supervision of Parolees and Probationers, this agreement was originally signed by 25 states in 1937 . By 1951, all the states in the United States of America had a working probation system and ratified the Interstate Compact Agreement . In 1959, the new states of Alaska and Hawaii, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the territories of the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa ratified the act as well . </P>

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