At the turn of the century most post-Soviet countries faced a serious overcrowding, degradation of prisoners in them and, consequently, increasing recidivism and reducing the level of security in the society. To neutralize this type of social consequences, a probation service was established in a number of post-Soviet republics. The specifics of the Institute of probation is that there is no generally accepted term for its designation. According to the authors, probation is at the same time a newly created social institution that works together with structural-the current prison system and multifunctional system, which is implemented as the process of execution of criminal punishment; as the process correction and development of personality of the convicted; form of social and legal control; a measure to prevent offenses during punishment and recidivism after release, but also a means of re-socialization convicts. This is especially clear in the case of the Latvian probation service, which is analyzed by the authors in this article.