Note: If you have not completed the Ministry's Probation and Parole Officer basic training program and the experience requirement, you will be hired in the Probation Officer (PO1) salary range ($1182.40 - $1541.00) per week.
As public servants working in the Ministry of the Solicitor General, you will lead with integrity, demonstrate professionalism, champion inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility and human rights, and strive for excellence. Probation and Parole Officers are entrusted by our fellow citizens to play a pivotal role in the justice sector, promoting community and victim safety through the assessment and effective case management of offenders on community supervision.
While supporting public safety, ensuring offender accountability, and enforcing compliance, Probation and Parole Officers are tasked with assisting vulnerable offenders who face significant barriers and require guidance navigating the challenges of living with issues such as mental health, addictions, historical and ongoing systemic discrimination (e.g., racism) and related barriers such as poverty, transiency and historical/intergenerational trauma. They are committed to evidence-based practice in response to the changing needs of diverse communities.
Probation and Parole Officers are honest, accountable, caring, ethical, respectful, inclusive, and are passionate about reducing recidivism to support victim and community safety.
This is an exciting and intrinsically rewarding career within the Ontario Public Service where you can assist the offender population in making significant changes in their lives.
Working as part of a diverse and dynamic team, you will:
- Provide probation, parole and conditional sentence services to adult offenders
- Investigate and gather information to prepare reports ordered by the Courts and the Ontario Parole Board to support sentencing and parole decisions
- Enhance community safety by monitoring and enforcing conditions of court orders
- Assess criminogenic and other risk and needs and develop and implement offender case management plans to address those needs
- Help offenders to make positive changes by guiding and supporting their efforts through meaningful interventions, skills building, cognitive-behavioural counselling, referrals, programming and motivational interviewing
- Liaise with victims and build relationships with diverse criminal justice system partners and stakeholders such as police, courts and community agencies (including Indigenous communities and organizations)
- Degree (from an institution authorized by the province to grant degrees) in one of the following disciplines: social work, psychology, sociology, and criminology OR a degree (from an institution authorized by the province to grant degrees) and experience greater than five years in total, in a social services or correctional organization, in a role(s) that involves the formal assessment of human behaviour and the application of structured interventions aimed at supporting the changing of human behaviour.
- The ability to travel regularly, and in specified remote locations the ability to travel via air transportation and/or the ability to stay overnight
- Demonstrated counselling and motivational interviewing experience
- Relationship building skills to counsel, provide offenders with guidance and support
- Demonstrated ability to develop, implement, monitor, update and evaluate offender-focused case management
- Experience in the delivery of structured individual and group interventions
- Demonstrated ability to effectively gather data to support the completion of a comprehensive assessment
- Demonstrated ability to interpret and analyze assessment information gathered through identification of offender risk, need and responsivity
- Demonstrated use of professional discretion to make timely and appropriate decisions that are aligned with offender supervision strategies, individual needs, critical analysis, policy and legislation
- Demonstrated ability to set clear and consistent expectations for accountability or to initiate corrective action to address risk mitigation and offender rehabilitation
- Demonstrated interpersonal skills to contribute to a respectful workplace that values human rights, diversity, inclusion and equity
- Skills and ability to ensure completion of the administrative components of case management (including documentation, data entry, meeting deadlines and managing multiple priorities)
- Verbal communication skills to work effectively with colleagues, offenders, victims, stakeholders and justice partners with diverse needs and perspectives
- Demonstrated ability to gather and present information verbally and in writing in a clear, accurate, concise and professional manner
- Demonstrated insight into the impacts on offenders, victims, and communities who have experienced the effects of systemic barriers and intergenerational trauma
- Demonstrated understanding of Indigenous peoples' histories, the impacts of colonization, systemic discrimination and barriers, and intergenerational trauma, and of the unique needs of Indigenous offenders, victims and communities
- Demonstrated ability to integrate culturally appropriate, relevant and meaningful services and methods of intervention for offenders in their healing journey, and to support reconciliation
- Creativity, flexibility and respect for Indigenous perspectives and traditional approaches to achieving and maintaining change
If you are excited about this position and meet most, but not all, of the listed qualifications, please still consider applying. We recognize that no one person might have every qualification in this job ad, and you just might be the right candidate!
We are building an inclusive workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We encourage everyone interested in working with us to apply, including people with disabilities, Indigenous, Black and racialized individuals, as well as people from all ethnicities, cultures, sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions.
Our hiring process is accessible, consistent with Ontario's
Human Rights Code and the
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005. We are working to prevent and remove barriers in our hiring processes and can offer accommodation to address specific needs related to Code-protected grounds such as disability, family status and religion. For more information about accommodation during the hiring process please contact us.
Learn more about the work the OPS is doing to create an inclusive, anti-racist, accessible and diverse workplace:
- diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
- accessibility
- Anti-Racism Policy
The Ontario Public Service is one of Ontario's largest employers. Employees work for 29 ministries, with offices in more than 70 cities across the province.
We offer:
- a career that can grow across ministries and job functions
- flexible learning and developmental opportunities, including education and mentorship programs
- many employee networks offering support for and education about underrepresented groups
- tailored work arrangements, including opportunities like flex hours, self-funded leave and more
These roles come with a comprehensive compensation and benefits package that include:
- a defined-benefit lifetime pension plan (guaranteed, ongoing inflation-protected income after retirement)
- group health, dental, life and disability benefits
- a range of vacation and leave options
- an Employee and Family Assistance Program, which provides confidential counseling services
