2010 New York Code
EXC - Executive
Article 12-A - (255 - 258) PROBATION OFFICERS AND RELATED MATTERS
257 - Probation personnel; qualifications and duties.

§ 257. Probation  personnel;  qualifications  and duties. 1. Except as
  may be otherwise specified in other  provisions  of  law,  all  salaried
  probation  officers  and  their  supervisors, including the director, of
  every probation department, agency or service maintained by  any  county
  or  city  shall  be  in  the  competitive class of the civil service. No
  person shall be eligible for appointment as a probation officer or to  a
  position  that involves the duty of supervising a probation officer, who
  is under twenty-one years of age, or who  has  not  had  a  high  school
  education,  or  equivalent education, or who is not physically, mentally
  and morally fitted. Probation officers  shall  be  selected  because  of
  definite  qualifications  as  to  character,  ability  and training, and
  primarily with respect to their capacity for rightly  influencing  human
  behavior.   The   director  of  any  probation  department  may  appoint
  non-salaried  volunteer  probation  officers,  provided  they  have  the
  qualifications   required   of  salaried  officers.  The  general  rules
  regulating methods and procedures in the administration of probation, as
  may be adopted from  time  to  time  pursuant  to  section  two  hundred
  forty-three   of   this   chapter,   may   require   additional  minimum
  qualifications for probation personnel and shall set  forth  procedures,
  not  inconsistent with this or other laws, to be followed in appointment
  of all probation personnel.
    2. The office of probation  and  correctional  alternatives  may  when
  necessary  certify in writing the need of one or more salaried probation
  officers  to  the  official  body  charged   with   responsibility   for
  appropriating   funds   for  support  of  government  in  the  political
  subdivision of the state wherein a probation department is located. Such
  body shall then determine whether such need exists and if found to exist
  it shall fix the salary of such probation officer  and  appropriate  the
  necessary  funds,  as well as provide for the necessary expenses of such
  officer.
    3. Each probation officer who collects or has custody of money, before
  entering upon the duties of his or her office,  shall  execute  a  bond,
  pursuant to the provisions of section eleven of the public officers law,
  in  a  penal  sum  to  be  fixed by the local director of probation with
  sufficient  sureties  approved  thereby,  conditioned  for  the   honest
  accounting  for  all  money  received  by  him  or her as such probation
  officer. In the  discretion  of  the  local  director  of  probation,  a
  position  scheduled  bond  covering  all  such probation officers may be
  procured and executed in lieu of such individual bonds. The accounts  of
  all  probation  officers  shall  be  subject to audit at any time by the
  proper fiscal authorities and the office of probation  and  correctional
  alternatives.
    4.  It shall be the duty of every probation officer to furnish to each
  of his or her probationers a statement of the conditions  of  probation,
  and  to  instruct  him  or  her  with  regard  thereto; to keep informed
  concerning  his  or  her  conduct,   habits,   associates,   employment,
  recreation  and whereabouts; to contact him or her at least once a month
  pursuant to rules promulgated by the commissioner  of  the  division  of
  criminal  justice  services; to aid and encourage him or her by friendly
  advice and admonition; and by such  other  measures  as  may  seem  most
  suitable to bring about improvement in his or her conduct, condition and
  general  attitude toward society. Probation officers shall report to the
  head of the probation bureau or department who shall in turn  report  in
  writing  to  the  court  and  the  office  of probation and correctional
  alternatives at least monthly or where there is no bureau or department,
  directly to the court and  the  office  of  probation  and  correctional
  alternatives  concerning the conduct and condition of probationers; keep
  records of their work as probation officers; keep accurate and  complete

accounts  of  all  money  collected  from  probationers;  give  receipts
  therefor and make prompt  returns  thereof  at  least  monthly;  aid  in
  securing  employment;  perform such other duties in connection with such
  probationer  as the court may direct or as required by the general rules
  adopted pursuant to section two hundred forty-three of this chapter; and
  make  such  reports  to  the  office  of  probation   and   correctional
  alternatives as it may require.
    4-a.  In  the  event  a  probationer  ceases  to  participate in or is
  unsuccessfully terminated from an alcohol  or  substance  abuse  program
  ordered  by the court as a condition of a sentence of probation pursuant
  to section 410.10 of the criminal procedure law or section 65.10 of  the
  penal law, the probation officer shall immediately report said cessation
  or  termination  to  the  local  probation director. The local probation
  director shall report said cessation or termination to the court  within
  ninety  days,  except where the probationer has resumed participation in
  an alcohol or substance abuse program with the  approval  of  the  local
  probation  director. The local probation director shall include the fact
  of any such report to the court in the next monthly  written  report  to
  the   court  and  the  state  director  of  probation  and  correctional
  alternatives as required pursuant to subdivision four of this section.
    4-b. It shall be the  duty  of  every  probation  officer  to  provide
  written  notice  to probationers under the officer's supervision who may
  be subject to any requirement to report to the office of victim services
  any funds of a convicted  person  as  defined  in  section  six  hundred
  thirty-two-a  of this chapter, the procedures for such reporting and any
  potential penalty for a failure to comply.
    5. Probation officers may require such reports by probationers as  are
  reasonable or necessary. Probation officers shall be peace officers.
    6.  (a)  Notwithstanding subdivision one of this section, the director
  of probation in counties with a population of  more  than  four  hundred
  thousand,  except  counties  wholly contained within a city, shall be in
  the non-competitive class of civil service and shall be appointed by the
  county executive with the approval of the local  governing  body.  There
  shall  be  one  deputy  director  of  probation,  who  shall  be  in the
  non-competitive class of civil service. Such deputy shall  be  appointed
  by the director of probation.
    (b)  No  person  shall  be  eligible  for appointment as a director of
  probation or deputy director of probation pursuant to subdivision one of
  this section who does not meet the  minimum  qualification  requirements
  established for the position by the general rules regulating methods and
  procedures in the administration of probation.
    (c)  The  provisions of this subdivision shall not apply to any person
  holding the office of director or deputy director of  probation  in  any
  such county on the effective date of this subdivision during the term of
  such office.