News  Denyse Bardouille led with compassion and conviction as the first African-American Female Probation Officer for the Massachusetts Probation Service

When Denyse Bardouille arrived at the Suffolk Superior Court Probation Department on October 15, 1975, she had no idea that she was making history as the first Black female Probation Officer in the county and the Massachusetts Probation Service in its then 134-year history.

Ms. Bardouille, who is now retired, recalled that she quickly realized this important moment when she walked into the courtroom and saw television cameras, the flash of a photographer’s camera, and reporters taking notes to chronicle her first day on the job.

“I walked into the courtroom on the 8th floor to see cameras and microphones, the news media and I was not aware that I was going to be the first Black female Probation Officer assigned to the court in Suffolk Superior in Boston. In 1975, to me that was really unconscionable. It should have been earlier that we were there; but, we weren’t and I became the first Black female Probation Officer. I was shocked; but, I was looking forward to doing my job,” Ms. Bardouille recalled.

She was working as a school teacher at the Mather School in Dorchester when she decided to try out for a job as Probation Officer. Ms. Bardouille had returned from Germany where she was a teacher on a US Army Base in Mainz, Germany. While overseas, she also did drug rehabilitation work through the American Youth Association. After returning to the states and working as a school teacher, it took two years of interviews before she landed the job with Probation.

Sworn in by a panel of three judges—Justices Henry Chimielinski, David S. Nelson, and Harry J. Elam Sr.— Ms. Bardouille was assigned to work with a staff of 22 men. She handled a 108-person caseload at the time.

Always a “straight-shooter” and inquisitive by nature, she began asking questions and challenging the status quo on her first day in the position. At the time, there was only one other female Probation Officer who passed away shortly after Ms. Bardouille started. On her first day on the job, she was assigned to go into the lock-up when no one else was.

“I questioned things and that is how I was going to learn. I wanted to know why I was assigned to go into this lock-up when no one else was. I wanted to be secure in what I was doing and honest in everything I did. That is basically me….to be compassionate and caring, kind to people, and even though I was a Probation Officer and someone who can legally ruin your life, by sending you away, I let you know that I did not send you away, you have caused this action because of the way you acted,” she said.

During her career, she supervised people involved in a number of high-profile cases which she did not wish to disclose. She, however, spoke about how she “loved the people she worked with—especially the clients that were on probation because there for the grace of God go I. If anything ever happened in my life, I could be in the same position,” she said. "That is what kept me all those years of surviving and loving what I did. I loved it.”

Ms. Bardouille supervised hundreds of individuals during her 33-year career. However, she recalls one man who she sent to jail because he continued to rob people despite being involved with the court. Ms. Bardouille ran into the same man after he completed his sentence. He approached her and thanked her for sending him to jail and told her that it "saved his life."

She has advice for the 27 newly-minted Probation Officers who recently graduated from the Probation Officer Academy, “I would tell them to be honest and to be kind and compassionate to the clients that they work with understanding that we are all human beings.”

Ms. Bardouille retired in 2008 and remains active in the community and spends her days enjoying her passions for art and painting as well as cherishing times with her grandchild.