Have a friend who got a driving related offense in a Bay Area county. He asked to go to jail for two or three weeks as he had a good job and income and could ma

Have a friend who got a driving related offense in a Bay Area county. He asked to go to jail for two or three weeks as he had a good job and income and could make it work with his boss. It was denied and he had to do weekend community service for 8 months. As a traveling consultant, this was a real wrench into his job and for his employer. He'd have to travel back every Thursday because he could not afford a Friday flight cancellation and missing service. Now, this court and county insists they structure it this way so to have the least impact on people. But he would arrive and watch all his crime peers arrive by taxi, foot or bike (bus service to that area on Saturday morning was a no-op). The vast majority of his peers were not people who could afford $20 each-way taxi or uber trips and worked jobs on weekends. They lost their jobs because their licenses were suspended. He suspected many of them gave up trying to comply and parked 1/2 mile away, driving their cars with with suspended licenses. Community service is basically a racket and not necessarily a better work/life deal than prison.