Media Advisory / Photo Opportunity - April 22, 2003
Office of the Commissioner of Probation

ESSEX JUVENILE COURT PROBATION DEPARTMENT
TO CELEBRATE LAW DAY

          Thirty juniors from Lynn English High School will learn about the Massachusetts Probation Service and get a primer on the inner workings of the court system during the Essex County Juvenile Court Probation’s Law Day Celebration which will take place on Thursday, May 1st, at the Essex Juvenile Court Probation Department, 139 Central Avenue in Lynn, beginning at 8:45 a.m.

          The students, enrolled in a Civics class at their high school, will be walked through the legal process and shown, step-by-step, how a person is placed on probation, from the arrest to an attorney’s involvement to the judge’s final decision. The teenagers are also slated to participate in a tour of the court jail or police lock-up.

          In addition to the students, several local elected officials are expected to attend. They include: Mayor Edward “Chip” Clancy, Senator Tom McGee, State Representative Robert Fennell, and State Representative Steve Walsh. Essex County Juvenile Chief Probation Officer Daniel Passacantilli and Assistant Chief Probation Officer Jay Fraher, the event’s organizers, will also be on hand. Passacantilli has coordinated a second ceremony to be held simultaneously at the Salem office of Essex Juvenile Court Probation Department. Participants will include students from Memorial Junior High School in Beverly.

          The Massachusetts Probation Service is a department of the Massachusetts Trial Court. Probation’s Juvenile Court System includes 11 divisions which represent every county in the state. There are 12 Superior Court, 70 District Court and 12 Probate & Family Court probation offices throughout the Commonwealth. The Office of the Commissioner of Probation (OCP) serves as the central administrative office for the state Probation Service and the Office of Community Corrections which operates 22 Community Corrections Centers throughout the state.

          Law Day, an annual celebration of the legal system which generally takes place in May, was established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958 to recognize “the country’s great heritage of liberty, justice and equality.”