I wonder what would happen if probation officers, instead of hounding and badgering their clients, always looking for bad behavior, would spend time helping them get acclimated back into society?

Instead of coming in for the kill for the most miniscule infractions of probation, why wouldn’t they want to be monitors for their clients, working diligently with them to help them get on their feet so they wouldn’t need to go back to the old playground and take their chances at survival?

They could assist in getting them an apartment, getting identification, driver’s license, a job, or help them get to NA/AA meetings, etc.

If ex-convicts got that kind of help to become an asset to society, they might not get so frustrated with the daily struggles that they lose hope and stop trying to meet all the ridiculous conditions of probation.

If the government would give funding for those purposes, I feel the investment would far outweigh the expense of paying for the costs of supporting these folks over and over again in the jail system.

I am confident that the overcrowding problem would become managable, and the big payoff would be that the ex-con becomes a productive member of society.

Give them the help to succeed, not the effort to make sure they fail.

Su MacLaren, Poland