Building the skin of an airplane is a craft with little tolerance for failure. The rivets that bind the sheets of aluminum must be set cleanly, without burrs or scratches, because just one faulty patch of skin can rip apart an airplane in flight. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s how probation once worked in New York City. The offender would report to an overworked officer who may have handled 250 other cases. The officer filled out a paper form that would find its way into a file cabinet in an office never again to see the light of day. “It was a joke,” says one former probation officer. “It served neither probationers nor public safety.” Read the rest of this entry »