Georgia Puts Probationers to Work Harvesting Crops

By Kate Brumback and Ray Henry

LESLIE, Ga. -- It's 3:25 p.m. in a dusty cucumber field in south Georgia. A knot of criminal offenders who spent seven hours in the sun harvesting buckets of vegetables by hand have decided they're calling it quits -- exactly as crew leader Benito Mendez predicted in the morning.