Damn. Did you know a U.S. city could privatize its COURT SYSTEM?

[pnwmom]

I didn't. And it took a British tabloid to let me know. (But then I found more info in the NYTimes. See below.)

And guess what? If you're a black guy who picks up the trash, that private court can send you to jail for going to work too early -- but sentence you to do all your time on weekends so you'll be available for picking up the trash during the week.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2984054/Garbage-man-thrown-jail-30-days-getting-work-early-annoying-residents-wealthy-Atlanta-suburb-houses-professional-athletes-rap-star.html#ixzz3TjdXMKQs

Garbage man jailed for 30 days because he came to work too EARLY and annoyed residents of wealthy Atlanta suburb

Kevin McGill, 48, violated ordinance banning trash collection before 7am

He will spend this weekend and the next 13 in jail after receiving 30 days

McGill had no lawyer when he went to Sandy Springs, Georgia, courthouse

'Company representative accompanied him' and expected up to $1000 fine

Father of two and new attorney have filed motion to withdraw guilty plea

Residents called 9-1-1 when they heard early garbage pickup services

Suburb has privatized almost all of its services, including court system


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/business/a-georgia-town-takes-the-peoples-business-private.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

IF your image of a city hall involves a venerable building, some Roman pillars and lots of public employees, the version offered by this Atlanta suburb of 94,000 residents is a bit of a shocker.

The entire operation is housed in a generic, one-story industrial park, along with a restaurant and a gym. And though the place has a large staff, none are on the public payroll. O.K., seven are, including the city manager. But unless you chance into one of them, the people you meet here work for private companies through a variety of contracts.

Applying for a business license? Speak to a woman with Severn Trent, a multinational company based in Coventry, England. Want to build a new deck on your house? Chat with an employee of the Collaborative, a consulting firm based in Boston. Need a word with people who oversee trash collection? That would be the URS Corporation, based in San Francisco.

Even the city’s court, which is in session on this May afternoon, next to the revenue division, is handled by a private company, the Jacobs Engineering Group of Pasadena, Calif. The company’s staff is in charge of all administrative work, though the judge, Lawrence Young, is essentially a legal temp, paid a flat rate of $100 an hour.

SNIP

The car driven by Mr. DeSimone says “Sandy Springs” on the side, which is one reason that this town can’t claim to be the most outsourced city in the United States. That distinction probably belongs to Maywood, Calif., eight miles southeast of Los Angeles, which in 2010 fired all but one employee, its city manager. Maywood is now operated, from top to bottom, through contracts. The police officers are members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, paid a combined $3.5 million a year to patrol the streets, according to Felipe Aguirre, a council member.

[Marxizm]

1. This all stems from the propoganda

If the Right-wing wasnt using "private ownership" and "freedumb!" as propaganda words this wouldnt be the case. If they had their way everything would be privatized, it would be the 19th century all over again where corporations owned entire towns including the damn courtroom and police.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

2. and just what do they mean

by privatised court system? what corporation is paying the magistrates?

sP

[arcane1]

4. And what happens if one of their employees breaks the law and goes to court?

[pnwmom]

5. The Jacobs Engineering Group of Pasadena, CA handles courthouse matters.

I've added more info on this to the OP.

[Historic NY]

3. Next week at 701 am he should be louder.

[Ilsa]

6. The same people probably whine about

the trash getting picked up late when he can't finish on time. I hope he honks horns, bangs lids, and generally gives them grief. He didn't deserve that sentence.

[Historic NY]

8. Exactly...

where I live a few of the busy bodies who came lately decided that they shouldn't have to listen to the garbage men pickup behind the produce warehouse or to the loud air conditioning & refrigeration. I told them complain to our planning board for letting residential development in an area that was commercial. What really pissed off the planning board is when I supplied them their names - address - phone numbers.

[ND-Dem]

7. I'd bet there's a lot we don't know. and i'd bet the ceo of 'jacobs engineering group' gets paid

a bit more than $100/hour.

The residents pay a British company for their business licenses. That really takes the cake. Talk about offshoring money.

The US system is now set up to suck money out of the US and impoverish its people, make no mistake.

And upper middle class fuckwads like those in this city are just going along with it.

I hope it bites them, hard.

I think there's some misinformation in this article, though. URS doesn't seem to do garbage collection, and at any rate, was taken over last year by a different corporation.

An earlier article said the garbage collector was Waste Management, which is the biggest private collection service in the US. That makes more sense than URS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URS_Corporation

[alcina]

9. Maywood, CA, was my hometown

And sadly, privatization was probably an improvement. But the reasons for privatizing were vastly different from those of Sandy Springs. No rich residents to cater to; just a woefully corrupt governance.

But regarding the residents of Sandy Springs: I can only imagine the level of narcissistic entitlement that would induce someone to call 9-1-1 "when they hear early garbage men."

Wow.

[cui bono]

10. WTF??? Thanks for posting this!

This is crazy and it's happening within 10 miles from me!!!

[pnwmom]

11. Wow! I hope it doesn't catch on.

[cui bono]

13. Me too! I'm going to contact some officials on Monday. That is crazy! n/t

[Wella]

12. THAT explains the imprisonment of this guy....

There was an earlier thread on this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026327801

An outsourced court system explains the ludicrousness of a prison sentence for a noise ordinance violation.

The garbageman, McGill, works for a company, Waste Management Inc, which accompanied him to the courthouse:

A representative for the company went to the courthouse with McGill, who expected to be ordered to pay up to a $1000 fine, Ms Bandoh said.

...Ms Prince added that Waste Management, which operates throughout the US and reported $14billion in revenue in 2014, would coordinate with its employee about his work schedule and jail time.

Waste Management is responsible for the employee's behavior and the company had ALREADY racked up a lot of fines with this city:

Sharon Kraun, a spokesman for Sandy Springs, told Daily Mail Online that McGill's citation stemmed from an incident where his truck had been photographed by a resident.

The city had seen a previous case where a garbage man was given jail time several years ago and that while no similar cases had happened since, the collectors had 'fair warning', Ms Kraun said.

She said that Waste Management, which had amassed thousands of dollars in fines with the municipality in the last year, suspended McGill for violating its policies before he went to court.

Waste Management could not answer questions about McGill's employment history with the company as of Saturday morning and said it was 'currently still investigating all the facts in the case'.

They also seem to have suspended the employee, although that's not clear.

Instead of putting the employee in prison (ludicrous!) the town should have fired Waste Management Inc. and found another company to collect trash at an hour they deemed appropriate. A municipal court would never have put this guy in prison, but they would have fined the company if the noise ordinance were deemed that important. This privatized court seems to not have much knowledge of acceptable punishments.

Maybe these towns outsourcing government officials are beginning to find out how outsourcing puts you at the mercy of a corporation that ignores your laws, your fines, your wishes as a customer. Clearly Waste Managment flagrantly violated the noise ordinances and had racked up a lot of fines. For the city to punish the employee instead of the company (who did not instruct their employee otherwise) is ludicrous.

[daredtowork]

14. I feel like there should be some sort of larger crackdown on this

Is there something State law or the Supreme Court can do to prevent this sort of thing?

I'm actually surprised this is Constitutional. It seems like there's a habeas corpus problem with pitching someone in jail for doing their job. Ack.

[octoberlib]

15. This reminds me of Libertarian

charter cities. Some Americans established one in Honduras, I believe . Charter cities were also tried in Madagascar which resulted in massive civil unrest and the overthrow of the President. Nobody should spend 30 days in jail for picking up trash too early. The company should be punished , not the employee. This is scary.