When you are on probation, if you mess up and break the rules put upon you, violations will happen. You do not want to deal with violations. Most of the time, if it is an honest mistake and you are honest with your PO, they can give you violations that do not include jail. This is where you have to have a good relationship with your PO. They will be less harsh if your PO knows you never mess up and you have a slip somewhere along the line. It can be something as simple as going to AA a certain amount of times or doing additional community service hours. If it is a bad mess up, they could give you weekend jail time. If you are difficult to deal with, your PO can simply violate your probation and send you to jail for however long your suspended sentence is which can be 3, 6, or 12 months, maybe even longer. Violating your probation is something you want to stay far away from because you never know if they’ll just send you to jail for an extended stay. In all 3 of my probation times, I had one violation with my interlock device due to nasal spray. They say it’s rare for people to make it through probation without any issues, mainly because the system is set up for people to fail. Our legal system is horrible, but it’s what we have so you have to learn to adapt and do what you need to do to stay out of trouble. I’ve covered in all of these sections how you can get through this without issue, but it is tough if you decide to work the system and do things you shouldn’t be doing.
What you have to understand is you are merely a number in the legal system. Everything is done by the books and you may have the saddest story or situation that brought you to this point, but they honestly don’t care. Your PO might give you less harsh punishments if you mess up, but one PO could have over one hundred probationers she is in charge of monitoring, so once you walk out the door, you are forgotten and on to the next. The law is the law and you either follow it or deal with the repercussions. If you can comprehend what I just said in this paragraph, you might be open to being the best probationer you can.
If you are given jail time, you can read my experience with weekend jail in Denton County.