In contrast to these institutional approaches, probation was initiated as an alternative response to juvenile delinquency. In 1841, John Augustus, a shoemaker in Boston, Massachusetts, first began the practice of supervising offenders in the community. Not only were his efforts to reform his charges generally successful, but they also saved the State the cost of building new institutions. After Augustus' death, other volunteers carried on his probation work. In 1869, Massachusetts created a State office responsible for supervising children under the State's care.
All States now have some form of juvenile probation.
Special juvenile and family courts that removed juvenile matters from adult criminal courts were developed in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The juvenile court founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1899 is generally recognized as the model for the juvenile court system that followed. Several legal precedents have developed that undergird the work of present-day juvenile courts and the juvenile justice system. This tradition claims the State has both a right and a responsibility to intervene in family life and assume the task of rearing a child if the family is unable to do so. It has roots in English Poor Laws, which empowered the State to separate poor children from their families and place them in apprenticeships.