The Presentence Investigation Report

The presentence investigation report (PSI) is the end product of the interviews you have completed with the offender, the victim, arresting police officers, and other interested parties. Probation officers spend a large proportion of their time writing PSI reports; thus, it is very important that those aspiring to a career in community corrections have a thorough grounding in what they are, what they contain, and the uses to which they are put. In this chapter, we first discuss the uses to which the PSI is put. Next, we provide an example of an actual PSI that was conducted by a probation officer in Idaho. We then explain, section by section, the type of information required in each area of the PSI and comment on each content area using information from the example PSI.