The website of the Probation board in the UK helpfully provides information about how they started. It all began in the late 19th century. The London Police force had been created only a few decades before and was successfully apprehending criminals and putting them in correctional facilities, but that proved to be only partially efficient. There was still the problem of reoffending, of criminals getting out of jail and returning to their old ways. It was obvious that those repeat criminals needed help.

The first initiative came from a volunteer working with a Temperance Society. In those times there was a big concern with excessive alcohol consumption, so this society was trying to help particularly the heavy drunkards. In 1876 this nice volunteer person noticed that there was no help for those drunkards who committed offences and came before courts. He wrote to his Temperance Society about it, adding a small purposeful donation to aid practical rescue work in the courts.

And there it was, the beginning of organised help, aiming to prevent reoffending. A special unit was created, the London Police Courts Mission, whose "missionaries" developed a system where offenders where released on condition that they will keep in touch with the missionary and will accept guidance. Only few years later, homes and shelters were also opened, providing vocational training. This was the first form of post-jail offender supervision.

A decade later, "The Probation of First Time Offenders Act" came out, and similar missionary services started to appear in other towns.

In 1907 the "missonaries" were given official status as court officers. Later, they started to get known as "probation officers", after the name of the law, "The Probation of Offenders Act". The law let courts suspend punishment and discharge the offenders if they pledged to follow certain rules, including the supervision of a probation officer, for a period of up to three years.

In 2007, for the centenary of the probation service, the Probation Board issued a rather informative souvenir folder, with reproductions of historical documents and a write-up from a professor of criminal justice. The professor adds that official responces to the early probation mission were rather negative, with Home Office even wanting to do away with it. This was due to the fact that those early missionaries were often not well educated. They were also temperance oriented and worked mainly to secure church attendance and pledges to avoid alcohol, which overshadoed proper probation work. As a result, probation rules were developed in dialogue with both interested parties, the probation officers and the government.

In 1912 the National Association of Probation Officers was formed. Its first newsletter records a steady diminution of the number of cases since the new method of dealing with offenders was adopted. It also noted a fall in repeat offences.

In the 1920s courts were required to have probation officers. By the 1930s, prison population halved, with probation service playing a major part inpreventing reoffending.

After the end of the First World War crime increased, and this led to further changes. Home Office decided that the probation service should not be left to charity bodies, and even not to the courts. It needed to become a state system. In 1938 Home Office took control over the probation service and started a wide range of modernisation and reforms. Those included "consent for probation", requirements for psychiatric treatment and mandatory requirement that female probtioners be supervised by women officers. The London Police Court Mission continues to exist but with a change of purpose - now they branch out towards care for abused children.

After the end of the Second World war, there was another law, The Criminal Justice Act, which states that the purpose of the probation is to "advise, assist and befriend". In the 1950s probation was mostly after-care, but in the 1960s prison work was introduced as integral part of the service.

During the 1970s probation service formed partnerships with other agencies which resulted in cautioning schemes and alternatives to custody. There were also changes to sentencing, which created special programme conditions, and the option of probation order as a sentence. Community Service Orders were introduced as punishment which deprived the offender of leisure time but also intended to change the offenders outlook.

In the 1980s there was already a coherent system of supervised early release from prison and a framework for probation intervention.

With the 1990s, drug testing orders and electronig tagging arrived.

It was only in the year 2000 that the probation service in England became 100% Home Office funded, unified and centralised.

In the 21st century, new changes introduce the National Offender Management Service with aim of reducing reoffending through more consistent offender management, and the possibility of introducing new service provides of probation, including public sector trusts. There were also arrangements begween different agencies, in order to achieve coordination and better protect the public from violent offenders.

"Alternative sentencing, intermediate sanctions and probation" by A.Kline gives the story of how it went in the US. On the other side of the Atlantic, a certain Boston cobbler is credited as the "Father of Probation". In 1841 he persuaded the Boston Police Court to release an adult drunkard into his custody rather than sending him to prison. In 1841 he persuaded the Boston Police Court to release an adult drunkard into his custody rather than sending him to prison. His efforts though, were resisted by police, court clerks, and turnkeys who were paid only when offenders were incarcerated.

By 1869, the Massachusetts legislature required a state agent to be present if court actions might result in the placement of a child in a reformatory, thus providing a model for modern caseworkers. The agents were to search for other placement, protect the child's interests, investigate the case before trial, and supervise the plan for the child after disposition. Massachusetts passed the first probation statute in 1878 mandating an official State probation system with salaried probation officers. Other states quickly followed suit. by 1930, juvenile probation was legislated in every state except Wyoming, which lagged behind for a while.

In about 1801, Governor King first introduced the ticket-of-leave system in the convict settlement of New South Wales (Australia). It allowed for a convict with a record of good behaviour to be released to work out the remainder of his/her sentence in the colony, subject to various restrictions and reporting requirements. They were entitled to work for salary, own property and marry, but not leave a specified district. The system became gradually more formalised with pre-requisites about the proportion of a sentence that had to be already served. The system continued until the end of convict transportation to Australia. It is named after the document that the "ticket-of-leave man" had to carry on his person identifying him and listing his offence, trial, ship, sentence restrictions and other details.

Note: This was not available as an alternative sentence. The prisoner had to be sentenced to imprisonment first.