The immense number of people on probation is made worse when you consider that many of these people are paying a corporation for the privilege of reporting to a probation "officer" who is a contracted employee of a corporation, not a member of any police department. People have to pay hundreds of dollars a month for probation, keeping them poor and in many cases, sending them right back to jail for something they can't afford to pay for. All for the sake of corporate profit.

This gives an interesting slant to city planning, social services, and policing. If environment has that great an effect on outcome...