4 tales of stresses, financial strains of private probation, for-profits plunder the poor

[Liberal_in_LA]

4 tales of stresses, financial strains of private probation
Published March 12, 2016 Associated Press

In at least 1,000 courts in more than a dozen states, people convicted of misdemeanors, and sometimes even traffic infractions, often face a difficult reality if they're poor and unable to pay fines and court costs on the spot. They are placed under the supervision of for-profit probation companies where they may find themselves snared in a cycle of growing debt and punishment. The practice has spurred many lawsuits on behalf of people who, unable to pay, struggle to stay out of jail. Here are four of their stories:



When Fred Robinson was convicted of two misdemeanor marijuana charges in 2011 — but was unable to pay $2,500 in fines and court costs — a judge placed him on 11 months and 29 days of probation. More than four years later, Robinson is still trying to get out from under.

"I can't afford my medicine to stay healthy and stay out of here," he says, sitting up in bed at Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, during a recent stay for difficulty breathing. "And they've still got me on this thing for non-payment."

Robinson, 31, used to work in the kitchen at a chain restaurant. For years, he has struggled with health problems, including ulcerative colitis and cirrhosis, which eventually forced him to quit. He depends on a $750 monthly disability check and gave up his apartment to move in with his sister.

Robinson says he reported to the PCC probation office weekly, but couldn't pay its fees and what he owed the court. His probation officer reported this as a violation, and Robinson was jailed in 2012, then saw his supervision extended to 23 months. Last September, he was again charged with a violation.

Affidavits filed by the probation company in 2012 and 2015 list his only violation as failure to pay court costs, fines and probation fees. In December, a federal judge barred the county from jailing people solely for non-payment, but he remains on probation.

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His first encounter came in 2007 when he was arrested twice in Georgia for misdemeanor driving offenses, including drunken driving and using the wrong lane. According to court records, he was placed on five years' probation.

In 2013, he went to the local sheriff's office for a background check so he could spend the night in a Salvation Army shelter in Augusta, Georgia. Instead, he wound up in jail. Hayes didn't know that five years earlier, Sentinel Offender Services, a private probation company, had obtained a warrant because he had not kept up with his fines and fees imposed in the earlier cases, according to his lawyer, Jack Long.

Less than a week after Hayes was arrested, a judge gave him a choice: Pay $854 or serve eight months in jail.

Neither is a realistic option, Long says. Hayes is too sick to work, he adds, and barely gets by, renting a room in a run-down boarding house, relying on a $720 monthly disability payment for rent, medicine and food.

Jailing him doesn't make sense, either, Long says, because an eight-month sentence would cost taxpayers more than $11,500, not including medicine. "Jail is being used as a collection tool, free of charge to the private probation company," he argues.

Long contends Hayes should have been ordered to perform community service. He's now suing Sentinel, claiming its practices are unconstitutional. He was able to secure Hayes' release pending a trial.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/03/12/4-tales-stresses-financial-strains-private-probation.html