About Our Presentence Services

U.S. Probation Officers are trained investigators who prepare presentence investigation reports ("PSR") on convicted defendants for the court.

The PSR is designed to provide the court independent, comprehensive, and accurate information about the defendant's offense, criminal background, and social circumstances - personal, family, education, employment, health, and financial. The PSR will also detail for the court the various advisory guideline and statutory sentencing options that are available.

The desired outcome of the presentence investigation is providing the court all the information it needs to impose a fair and just sentence.

The PSR is also one of the primary documents used by the Bureau of Prisons in its classification decisions.

Further details on the PSR and presentence investigation process are provided in the Presentence FAQ.