`I don`t get an extra check for locking you up`: a week with an LA parole officer
(The Guardian United States)

Working for the county probation department, the largest in the nation, means being equal parts social worker and law enforcementOn a Tuesday morning in October, Los Angeles deputy probation officer Booker Waugh made his way down a nearly sheer hillside, just a few feet from the entrance to the 10 freeway heading east.Waugh, 48, was conducting a field visit to one of his probationers, a man named Joshua Bey. Bey lives in the affluent neighborhood of Cheviot Hills - not in a stately colonial house but in an orange tent, pitched between the freeway and a retaining wall, buffeted by old window blinds and a blanket decorated with kittens. Continue reading...