More than half of the 27 probation officers (PO's) are located, one or two to an office, in various public housing projects. These "offices" are in former family apartment dwellings. The three intensive supervision PO's have offices together in one public housing apartment and share this space with the chief probation officer. Other PO's are based in community centers, schools, mental health centers, and the Girls and Boys Club. Instead of a hierarchical supervision of PO's, there is peer supervision of and by PO's, as the PO's meet in teams to assign cases and monitor the cases of each PO. As part of their community orientation, PO's have a dual purpose: the traditional purpose of managing probation cases and the innovative purpose of working to strengthen the neighborhoods where probationers live. Community-based PO's work with community-based police officers to achieve the latter purpose. Research evaluation has not been built into the decentralized probation effort, so there are no data that can prove the effectiveness of the project. Still, there is a consistency within the probation fabric and a positive rather than a threat- based orientation that should make probationers feel better about themselves. Further, there is a reaching out to the community to seek a co-ownership of responsibility for delinquency reduction and prevention.