Why it matters: Probation and parole are alternatives to incarceration that are designed to help lower the prison population and allow people to more easily integrate back into their communities. But perfectly following the rules of parole and probation can prove difficult, and many violators end up back in prison.

In 20 states, more than half of prison admissions are for parole or probation violations.

• "What it becomes after a certain period of time is a bunch of trip wires for people to fall over," reform advocate and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner told Axios on HBO..
• There are times when people who have violated parole and probation should be detained, but it happens too often and for "very minor things," he said.

By the numbers: In 2018, there were an estimated 4.5 million adults under probation or parole — that's 1 in 55 American adults, according to study by Pew Charitable Trusts. Hundreds of thousands of those people end up back in jail or prison each year.

And it's expensive. Probation and parole violations cost state prisons $9.3 billion every year, according to the CSG study.

• That doesn't include the costs of arresting and incarcerating offenders in local jails before they are sent to a state prison.
• $2.8 billion of the cost is for technical violations of parole or probation, rather than someone committing a new offense while under supervision.
• In Missouri, more than half of state prison admissions in 2017 were for technical parole or probation violations. Missouri has the 10th highest incarceration rate in the world, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

Some fun findings: Most cover stories about science, aerospace, transportation, space and technology featured illustrations with no people.

• There are a few repeat covers, and covers that play off of one another, even decades apart. For example, the famous Roy Lichtenstein gun illustration was used in 1968 following the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and again in 1998 following several teen shootings.
• Dogs, horses, monkeys and bulls tend to be the most popular animals to grace Time covers, as well as donkeys and elephants, of course. Bulls are a go-to cover image for business stories, naturally.
• Time covers became much more colorful and animated beginning in the 1940s. A large portion of covers featured soldiers or war figures during the World War II era.

Methodology: Axios went through the Time vault and sorted every available cover since 1923 and identified each cover as having "only women," "only men," "both," "neither" or "not available."

By the numbers: In total, we found, 428 covers featuring "only women," 3,199 covers featuring "only men," 230 covers featuring "both," 682 covers featuring "neither" and 265 covers that were "not available."

• As is clear in the chart above, most working-age adults in the region have jobs.
• People born into low-income households in these states are moving into the middle class with greater ease than other Americans.
• The top six metro areas in terms of upward mobility — defined as the average income of people with the poorest parents — are all in the northern plains.

Original story: (10/18/18)