Probation's essential elements include the release of an offender into the community under certain conditions and under the supervision of a probation department. However, these elements have been variously incorporated within rehabilitative, medical, and justice models of probation. An analysis of the views of John Augustus and the courts emphasizes that probation is not a sanction, but a form of legislative grace or mercy, which while containing some punitive aspects, is primarily humanitarian in nature. An understanding of probation from this historical perspective provides a sufficiently broad conceptualization of probation to encompass the probation officer's law enforcement, supervision, and rehabilitation roles. It is when probation is understood as the systematic extension, supervision, and evaluation of an essentially unwarranted opportunity for offender self-improvement that the law enforcement/social work dichotomy is laid to rest. It is also from this perspective that justice, conceived as mercy and grace, becomes determinative of true fairness. 22 references.