STRESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN THE PROBATION AND
YOUTH JUSTICE DIVISION, KINGDOM OF TONGA
Tito Faupala Kivalu

I. INTRODUCTION
In Tonga today, treatment of offenders has increasingly become one of the major concerns of theauthorities and the public at large.The Probation,Prison Department and the CommunityAgencies areat the heart and core of the justice system in terms of treatment and rehabilitating of offenders but
most importantly in promoting peace in our community. It is indeed undeniable that the roles andresponsibilities of these professions are huge challenges and associated with lots of occupational stress.
It is particularly valuable to understand how correctional personnel manage to cope with theirchallenges and stresses while executing their respective duties.This paper is in two major parts.The
first part contains three sub-parts addressing from where causes of stress for Probation Officers arederived.Each of these three sub-parts further outlines specific causes and proofs ofstress for Probation
Officers. The last part of this paper discusses stress management practices.

II. THE MAIN CAUSES OF STRESS
A. Organizational Causes
1. Understaffed
At present there are only four officers employed in the Probation and Youth Justice Division. Allthese Officers are posted on the main Island of Tongatapu. There are two main challenges with only
four Probation Officers.The first being a lack ofprobationarywork available on the other islands.The
second is that for the past years, the need for probationary work has increased significantly. On
average the pre-sentencing reports alone ordered from the Probation Office are 160 for the last threeyears.In the years 2011 and 2012,there were only three officers working,while one officer was on study
leave.Therefore,on average,for the last two years,one officer had to complete about 55 pre-sentencing
reports.These reports were on top of many other duties of each officer.These serious challenges havebeen with the Division for a very long time causing serious stress to each Probation Officer.
(i) Proof Points(a)Workload
According to the job descriptions and other duties assigned to the roles of Probation Officers,
sometimes it is too much for the individual capacity to get a hold on and be able to handle every task
in a timely manner, and, almost all the time, it takes time to recover and to escape from stresses.
(b)Untrained Staff
All four officers of the Probation Division had never received any formal or special training before
engaging in our respective jobs. Each of the Probation Officers had to learn on the job. We also had
to rely on in-house training through sharing experiences from the other officers who had been in theDivision longer.
2. Limited Budget
The Division is under the M inistry of Justice. The M inistry of Justiceʼs administration section
always has the last say in the Divisionʼs administration matters including the Divisionʼs annual anddaily budget. This is one of the major factors that has contributed to developing stress of individual
officers because the need to complete our tasks daily are either not met or they have been delayed fora long period of time.
Probation Officer, Probation and Youth Justice Division, Kingdom of Tonga.

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154TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTSʼPAPERS(i) Proof Points(a)Lack of Facilities
We have a lack of equipment that is very much in need for our daily operations that could help toconduct our duties more effectively and in a timely manner. For example, we all have to share one
vehicle,computers and a printer,for the organization has provided very limited resources.Most days
we also run out of fuel for the vehicle. The vehicle is very much needed for the supervising of thecommunity workers, home visits and so forth.
(b)Further Training
As years go by, Probation Officers need to update their skills and knowledge to meet the socialchanges of the community. If it was not for JICA, all the Probation Officers would have not received
any up-to-date training. Therefore there is an urgent need for necessary training in other areas forTongaʼs Probation Officers. These trainings should also include counselling, etc.
3. Legislation
Since the establishment of this new service in Tonga in 1994, there has been no special legal
document enacted to guide the process and procedures for Probation Officers for the purpose of thisdivision. The only legal shelter for this service is an Amendment Act No. 25 of 1990 of the Criminal
Offences Act.
(i) Proof Points(a)Lack of Legal Support
The law consists of the very important documents that every profession would look to for guidance
and for security for their actions while conducting their duties, especially involving important areasthat deal with legal matters and justice. In the absence of legislation, Probation Officers are often
exposed to vulnerable,stressful situations in the absence of a piece of legislation for Probation work.
B. Work-Related Causes
1. Communication Breakdown
Communication has become a significant problem that triggers an immediate stressful reaction insome situations.The Probation Division is a part of the law enforcement unit of the justice system,andour responsibilities are relying on court orders that are strictly constrained by time limitations.Veryoften the Probation office receives court orders verylate and close to their due dates resulting in officer
stress.
(i) Proof Points(a)Increasing Workload
Task allocation to each Officer has mounted up, and they are subjected to further stressful situations.This may also result in probation officers working for unpaid over-time during or after working
hours and on week-ends.
(b)Inability to complete tasks in a timely manner
Inability to receive court orders in a timely manner results in the inability of the Probation Officer
to prepare the required reports on time. This causes bad relationships between all concerned parties
such as the courts, community service supervisors, offenders, probation officers and so forth.
2. Lack of Leadership and Management Skills
The Probation Division authority had a lack of management and leadership skills in organizing andcontrolling the daily operations of the division. This is a factor that sometimes contributed to morestressful situations.
(i) Proof Points(a)Line of Duty
There is no management system in place for the division of labour and tasks of each Probation
Officer.Sometimes one Officer is frustrated and cannot control stress especially when another Officer
is absent from duty.

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 91(b)Delegation of Authority
There is no system in place to decide who is responsible to check on each employees and theirperformance in conducting their duties.Also there is no clear delegation on who is to look after what
job within our Division.This sometimes resulted in one officer making a decision on the same matterthat another officer had previously made a decision on. The clashes in decision-making sometimes
cause bad relationships between some of the Probation Officers.
3. Threat of Offender Violence
The nature of work where one has the authority to control and manage others and the way tobehave,and the others are obliged by the law to comply with the direction given by authority,creates
stress. For example, on many occasions only one Probation Officer is assigned to do the supervisionrole of community service workers of more than ten (10) offenders. At most times, offenders wereallowed to use working tools to assist in carrying out their work.
(i) Proof Points(a)No Security System
There has never been any system or any specific training for security purposes to protect Probation
Officers from suffering as a result of an unexpected incident while conducting their duties.
(b) Tonga is a small country and basically everyone knows where everyone lives and works.
Sometimes officers meet the offenders working in the community in shops, towns or elsewhere. Fearof being attacked mostly causes stress to the officer.
4. Poor Data Collection System
Technology helps reduce stressful norms of the workload of todayʼs job and has changed manythings in a positive way,but our manual system of storing information and data collection has draggedindividuals into stressful situations.
(i) Proof Points(a)Slowdown Work Progressing
This is one of the factors that has contributed to the stressful effect ofworkload.For example,whena record of an offender is needed, it takes a lot of time to go through manual system to update theinformation.
(b)Statistical Accuracy
There have been possibilities of inaccurate information when referring and using statistical data inconstructing reports as the system puts pressures on itself, especially at times when an officer isexperiencing heavy workload. This is a result of not having reliable and updated computerized data.
C. Other Causes
1. Lack of Public AwarenessSince the establishment of the Probation Service in Tonga, the workers keep changing over time,and new recruitment comes in. There has been little attention to educate the general public how
important the Probation Service is or its role in the community development.
(i) Proof Points(a)Misunderstanding
There is a misunderstanding by some of the community members as to the roles and responsibilitiesof Probation Officers, which in turn leads to a poor image of the Probation Officer to the generalpublic.For example,some of the offenders and family members who were interviewed for the purposeof preparing Pre-sentence reports for the courts had the wrong idea that the Probation Officer has asay on what sentence the court will impose on each offender.
2. Probation Officer ― OffendersʼAfter-Working-Hours Relationships
Because Tonga is a small country,you could easily recognize and meet someone very often.It is achallenge that causes stress when meeting offenders at places outside of work.

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154TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTSʼPAPERS(i) Proof Points(a)Post Threat
It is always difficult to escape the feeling of insecurity when meeting offenders. As previously
mentioned,Tonga is such a small country,and fear of your family members being attacked also causesmuch stress for Probation Officers.
3. Lack of Cooperation of Inter-related Agencies
There has been no proper network system in place to support cooperation between the inter-relatedagencies.
(i) Proof Points(a)Information ExchangeIn some of the key agencies such as the Prison Department,we experience verypoor communication
regarding important information about offenders.For example,information about discharging dates ofprisoners who are to be on probation after discharge from prison.Not knowing these dates causes morestress to Probation Officers since the Division has to go looking for the offender and sometimes to noavail.

III. STRESS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
To be frank,occupational stress is ignored widely in the Tonga correctional system.The problem
has never received serious attention or been a matter of priority in the organizationʼs operational
strategies.It is evident from the type ofwork done byProbation Officers,described in previous sectionsof this paper, that stress is a huge challenge in this line of work. Accordingly, it is important tohighlight the stress management strategies that are in place that help the Probation Officers cope withstress while conducting their duties.
In the organizational system of work there has never been a formal stress management mechanism
to help with the employeesʼstress management.Therefore each officer manages his stress personally.
The way that these officers deal and cope with their stress is simply something that they have learned
from their past experiences. In my view, there are four main ways used by Probation Officers tomanage stress.
The first is through discussions with other Probation Officers. Probation Officers often discuss
their cases and workload with colleagues. This sometimes occurs in a situation when an Officer isexperiencing very excessive workload or possible threats from community workers. Through discussions, the concerned officer may feel less stress.
The second is seeking further assistance from former Probation Officers or from other professions
such as State Prosecutors,M agistrates,Judges and so forth.This is in particular when it comes to legal
issues. Clarifications are sometimes sought from appropriate professions as mentioned above.
The third is the delegation of the community-work-order supervision role to community agencies.
This also includes enrolling offenders in rehabilitation courses conducted by several community
agencies and non-government organizations. This is considered one of the very effective stressmanagement strategies that reduces work-related stress of Probation Officers.
The fourth stress management strategy that proves its long-term effect to reduce the current trendof stress is that Probation Officers pursue further studies.As previously mentioned,one of the officers
underwent further studies in one of the universities in 2011 and 2012 in sociology.The knowledge andskills brought from this officer contributed very much to correcting uncountable misunderstandings in
the Division.
It is also worth mentioning in this paper that the various experiences that each officer has
encountered contribute so much to their managing of each of their respective stress levels. In somesituations when one officer does not want to discuss challenges that he faces,the officer has to find a129

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way outside work to work it out on his own.

IV. CONCLUSION
In conclusion,at present Probation and Youth Justice has no organized stress management system.
Despite the undoubted benefit the Kingdom receives from the Probationʼ
s services, the mental wellbeing of its staff is the least of the Kingdomʼs concerns.We can never eliminate stress from our daily
lives at our workplaces, but many studies have proved that there is much we can do to reduce it.
Therefore, the onus is on the principal organization to take actions in developing its own stressmanagement policy. For a better Probation service, establishment of a stress management system isvery much needed immediately.

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