George J. Blake Jr., acting Chief Probation Officer at Northampton District Court Probation Department, recently joined forces with New England Domestic Abuse Programs of Northampton to form the Diversity/Sensitivity Program.

 

          Blake recognized an increase in hate crimes following the 2001 terrorist attacks in his court.

 

          “I began seeing more people coming through the system for civil rights violations and hate crimes in the past year in a half. In fact, some of the probation officers came to me and pointed this out as well,” Blake said. “This is by no means an epidemic. But, it is a concern we wanted

to address. We now have a program in place to heighten awareness in the area.”

 

          Probationers who are ordered to attend the program must attend two meetings a week for a three weeks. Issues such as prejudice, behavior, and anger management are addressed. The program also explores the role of drugs and alcohol use in hate crimes. Offenders are required to pay a $125 initial fee for the program and $35 for each session.

 

          The Diversity/Sensitivity Program is one of a number of programs the probation department and New England Domestic Abuse Programs operate collaboratively. The others include shoplifter prevention, anger management and drug and alcohol education.

 

          The Massachusetts Probation Service is a department of the Massachusetts Trial Court. There are 12 Superior Court, 70 District Court and 12 Probate & Family Court probation offices throughout the Commonwealth. Probation’s Juvenile Court system includes 11 divisions which represent every county in the state. 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.