However, it is not nearly so cheap to watch over them. Currently, probation officers say the state requires them to visit their wards only twice a year, a requirement so low that most counties say they ignore it and visit much more frequently. Placement officers are supposed to be visiting children in care out of California. Visits every month or six weeks are more the norm, but that frequency depends on a variety of things, including the distance and remoteness of the program, the amount of travel money available to a county and the motivation of individual probation officers. A counselor and ward walk through the Arizona Youths bow their heads to say grace before a meal at Queen Creek.
Some wards appreciate the chance to escape gangs, drugs and other problems.
Others paint a picture of physical mistreatment. It totally depends upon the personality and the work ethic of the person assigned to doing it. And it also comes down to money. Before October 1996, for instance, Sacramento County probation officer Don Berg used to visit most of his wards every month. But budget cuts eventually caught up to that schedule and reduced it to every six weeks.