Purpose of Juvenile Probation

Mission

To protect the community from delinquency, to impose accountability for offenses committed, and to provide juvenile offenders with the opportunity to live productively and responsibly in the community.

I.C. 31-10-2-1

• Recognize the importance of family and children in our society
• Recognize the responsibility of the state to enhance the viability of children and family in our society
• Acknowledge the responsibility each person owes to the other
• Strengthen family life by assisting parents to fulfill their parental obligations
• Ensure that children within the juvenile justice system are treated as persons in need of care, protection, treatment and rehabilitation
• Remove children from families only when it is in the child's best interest or in the best interest of public safety
• Provide for adoption as a viable permanency plan for children who are adjudicated children in need of services
• Provide a juvenile justice system that protects the public by enforcing the legal obligations that children have to society and society has to children
• Use diversionary programs when appropriate
• Provide a judicial procedure that:
  • Ensures fair hearings
  • Recognizes and enforces the legal rights of children and their parents
  • Recognizes and enforces the accountability of children and parents
• Promote public safety and individual accountability by the imposition of appropriate sanctions
• Provide a continuum of services developed in a cooperative effort by local governments and the state