PESHAWAR, Sept 2: Criticizing what they called ignorance of government departments, including police, about the role of probation officers, speakers at a workshop recommended an increase in the number of probation officers in the NWFP for effectively dealing with cases of juvenile offenders.

The consultative workshop on “The Role of Probation Officer under the JJSO 2000” was organised here on Friday by the Society for Protection of Rights of the Child (Sparc).

Probation officers (POs) from across the province participated in the workshop with lawyers, journalists and social workers.

The participants proposed that the POs should start talking about their role in the meetings of the Criminal Justice Coordination Committee, headed by the district and sessions judge.

They suggested that to make sure that no child went to prison for a petty crime, the SHOs should send a copy of the FIR to the probation officers as well.

The PO should also visit juvenile section of a prison at the time when the judge had scheduled his visit and names and phone numbers of the probation and parole officers should be displayed at prominent places in the police stations, they proposed.

The POs be provided with details of every case in the district and the judge should notify the formation of the penal of lawyers under the JJSO 2000 to provide free legal aid to juvenile offenders who were unable to afford it, they said.

The government should include a training module on the working of the probation department at training academies, including law colleges, judicial and police academies, and women POs should be appointed in every district, they suggested.

Opening the workshop, Sparc’s Arshad Mahmood said that despite the importance of non-custodial measures of punishment for juvenile offenders, the number of probation officers was 14 in the NWFP with not a single woman officer among them.

He said that the SHOs were bound under the JJSO 2000 to inform the probation officer of their area whenever there was a case involving a child below the age of 18 years but it never happened.

There was a lack of awareness among judiciary and government departments concerned about the probation system and its importance, he said.

Sparc had decided to launch a nationwide campaign for activating the probation system and the workshop was its beginning, said Mr Mahmood.

Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmad, Probation Officer Jhang, while sharing his expertise with the participants, informed them that if police failed to inform a probation officer about a case involving a juvenile offender, the PO could ask for explanation under section 155 of the Police Order 2002.

Noor Alam Khan Advocate briefed the participants about the salient features of the JJSO. He said that there was a need to create awareness among police, lawyers, judiciary, media and others concerned about the probation system.

By having an effective probation system, millions of rupees could be saved, which were spent on building, maintaining and running jails for juvenile offenders, said Mr Khan.