Social workers (mostly females) naturally support the moral rehabilitation goal fixed by the Reform. Their function evolves into a Jack-of-all-trades one in the rehabilitation practices. But the models of treatment in prison and of after-care assistance avocated by the Reform, has been set aside since the early 1950's in favor of a less explicit one aiming at ascribing the community to reduce imprisonments. Because of this reversal of rationales, social workers lose their key function to the benefit of the judge presiding over the assistance committee. The Code de Procedure Penale of 1958 will, in this perspective, institute probation sentences and attribute to the correctional workers the role of probation officers. (Author summary)