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The Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (PBPP) is an independent agency
responsible only to the Governor. Created by statute in 1941, it had the title
"Parole Board" until 1965, when it received the additional task of
administering most of the state and local cases of court-awarded probation.
The expanded title "Board of Probation and Parole" was created at
that time. As established in 1941 and modified in 1943, the Board had power
to award and supervise all convicted offenders' paroles. In addition, if both
the Board and any trial court sentencing an offender to less that two years
imprisonment agreed, the Board assumed the power to supervise such a "special
parole." The justification for parole has always been to prepare convicts
for return to full freedom by placing them outside prison, in personal liberty
except for strict supervision. When renamed in 1965, the PBPP was ordered to
supervise all probation of offenders sentenced for more than two years, and
to assist local probation systems through grants-in-aid and training. The agency's
administration was largely supervised by the Board's secretary until recent
years when the Office of Probation and Parole Services was created outside the
secretariat, as now are also many other internal offices: Chief Counsel, Professional
Responsibility, Victim's Advocate, Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, Policy
[and] Legislative Affairs, and Administrative Services. The agency maintains
district offices located around the state. By the 1970s, Pennsylvania legislated
Sentencing Guidelines for parole.
A more detailed history of this department is available.
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