Consequences of Probation Violations and When to Seek Treatment
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Violating probation might be an honest mistake for some people, but that doesn’t mean that the court isn’t going to take it seriously. What happens when you violate probation? You might be waiting on pins and needles to find out what will happen to you next if you know you’re facing a probation violation.
Often, a violation means that you will be summoned back to court for a judge to decide the outcome. It could be as simple as more community service hours, more meetings with probation officers, or court fines. However, it could also mean a revocation hearing for your probation. A mandatory stay in a rehab facility could also be an option.
Changes Healing Center offers a safe place to land for anyone facing drug and alcohol use issues. If you need more help than probation offers, we can offer everything from medical detox to intensive outpatient care.
Here is what you need to know about what violating probation could mean, and how to get help at Changes if you want help in completing probation successfully.
Violating Probation and Its Consequences: What to Expect
Sometimes, you may not be able to uphold all of the conditions of your probation. While you do always have the choice to seek additional help from your probation officer or community resources, there are times when you fail to follow through on the standard set before you.
What should you expect from violating probation?
Most often, the first thing that will happen when your probation officer files their paperwork is that you will receive a court summons. The idea of appearing before a judge again can cause you to have sweaty palms and anxiety. This initial hearing allows you to either admit guilt or deny the accusations that your probation was violated.
Regardless of whether you plead guilty, it may be up to the judge to issue some of these consequences.
Warning and Last Chances
If you’re extremely lucky and this is your first violation, you might be left off with a warning and a clear message about what will happen next time you slip up. It depends on the severity of your violation. For example, possession of illegal drugs may be more serious than missing community service hours.
It might also be enough to transition you from unsupervised probation, where you have more freedom, to a regular schedule of meetings with your new probation officer. Subsequent offenses are likely to have more serious consequences, like some of the other outcomes listed below.
Increased Community Service Hours
One of the more common ways that judges and probation officers will handle a probation violation is by increasing your responsibilities. You’ll have less time to get into trouble again if you’re busy working with the community around you.
Community service occupies you, acts as a consequence, and helps others who may be in need. You may have the option where you spend your time completing community service, so you can choose a program that’s meaningful to you. This is perhaps the best part of this potential consequence.
Of course, thinking about how community service will impact your life is important. The hours you might spend picking up litter or helping in a nursing home cut into your available work hours or responsibilities within your home. Ultimately, it’s still an improvement over jail time.
More Meetings with Your Probation Officer
Another potential outcome of your probation violation hearing is a hassle: you might get your probation extended for more months. Your probation officer might schedule more frequent meetings with you to ensure you stay on the straight and narrow. More drug testing might also be put in place.
Supervised probation is a common outcome. It enables a probation officer to make informed decisions about your ability to live in the community without risk of recidivism. You may even see extended time on your probation if there’s reasonable doubt about whether you’re guilty of a violation.
Mandatory Jail Time
Whether you have already served your time or were immediately relegated to probation, missteps can have a serious consequence: a mandatory jail or prison sentence. If the judge assigned to your case feels that your excuse for violating probation isn’t good enough, they might take extreme action to teach you a lesson.
This is why having an experienced criminal defense attorney in your corner is essential if you have criminal charges against you. Having probation revoked is a major step backward when it comes to integrating yourself back into the community and can seriously impact your family.
Court Fines and Court Costs
Most probation violations are overlooked the first time around. You may not receive jail time for a first offense, especially minor ones. However, the judge will be inclined to issue some kind of warning and lesson for skirting the line of what you’re allowed to do. In this case, it’s often court fines.
Remember, you may incur additional court costs if you hire a criminal defense attorney to represent you.
There may be other options if you can’t pay the fines levied against you in court. For example, a judge might allow you to serve jail time to compensate for the cost of the fines.
Mandatory Drug and Alcohol Rehab
One of your probation terms is likely that you will remain sober while you serve the rest of your time. Be sure to clarify the situations in which you can or cannot have alcohol and drugs. Most of the time, your answer will be fairly cut and dry: no substances at any time during the probation period.
A convicted person, especially if their initial charge was related to substance misuse, might find that the stipulations for their probation require complete abstinence. Any alleged violation may be a sign you’re in need of additional help (especially if you didn’t receive it during your first violation).
Remember that you can often choose to attend rehab on probation, and that many POs will be supportive of this, particularly before testing positive on multiple drug tests or catching new charges.
Rehab should be considered an opportunity to grow, learn, and change habits rather than punishment that you simply have to “get through.” You can benefit from an array of therapeutic treatments and can find a soft spot to land where you don’t have to worry about the risk of using drugs and alcohol again.
If you know that your probation office is going to check in with you and you won’t test clean on a drug test, it may be best to seek help proactively rather than being court ordered to rehab.
No Early Termination of Your Probation
A probation officer failing you could mean that you have to stick with the consequences of a court case or outcome for a much longer period. Supervised probation is often cut short for good behavior, but you might forgo that option with just a single violation.
You might count yourself lucky that you don’t have to serve time in jail or prison, but probation is a drain on your time. A probation violation might mean more frequent meetings, drug tests, and random check-ins until it’s clear that you’re doing well and are almost ready to transition out of the probationary period.
Reach Out to Changes Healing Center Today for Help
Whether you have an experienced attorney to present evidence on your behalf or not, you might be able to win over a judge by admitting that you need help. Changes Healing Center gives you a chance to see a new way of life, apart from substance misuse and criminal activity. Whether you need inpatient care or outpatient support, our continuum of care offers it all.
Our rehab center will ensure that you get clean and help you stay that way.
All it takes to get started is a simple phone call. With just fifteen minutes of your time, we can verify your insurance benefits and answer your questions. Reach out to us today to see if we can help you recover from a violation of probation!
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