87% of probation orders that ended last year successfully completed, highest in a decade: MSF

MEANINGFUL COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

Beyond family support, connections with the wider community cultivate probationers’ “sense of responsibility” towards the community and “connect them to positive role models”, said MSF.  

Probation officers and volunteer probation officers work with probationers to help them build such connections, such as through community service. 

In particular, two community partnerships have been key in supporting the work of MSF’s PCRS and “mobilising the community to strengthen the rehabilitation of probationers”, added the ministry. 

These schemes are the volunteer probation officer scheme and the community service scheme. 

“We do not exclude or ostracise young offenders. Many of us have also been through a period where we were rebellious and non-conforming,” said Dr Martin Wong, a volunteer probation officer and President of Xin Yuan Community Care.

Xin Yuan Community Care had collaborated with a group of probationers and the Youth Advisory Group to organise virtual activities for children from low-income families for Children’s Day.

“Strong community support is needed to allow (probationers) to see and feel positivity around them and exercise their own will to change,” said Dr Wong. 

“Ultimately, we want the probation experience to motivate our youths to continue with positive changes beyond the probation order, and to pay it forward,” added Ms Carmelia Nathen, Chief Probation Officer and Director of PCRS.