I ran across the problem of private probation companies on Upworthy, and decided to research it further, because of my prison volunteer work. The video there led to a second video, but they did not list all the locations where this perverse injustice takes place, and that led to ever more digging.
Every year, US courts sentence several hundred thousand misdemeanor offenders to probation overseen by private companies that charge their fees directly to the probationers. Often, the poorest people wind up paying the most in fees over time, in what amounts to a discriminatory penalty. And when they can’t pay, companies can and do secure their arrest.
The 72-page report, “Profiting from Probation: America’s ‘Offender-Funded’ Probation Industry,” describes how more than 1,000 courts in several US states delegate tremendous coercive power to companies that are often subject to little meaningful oversight or regulation. In many cases, the only reason people are put on probation is because they need time to pay off fines and court costs linked to minor crimes. In some of these cases, probation companies act more like abusive debt collectors than probation officers, charging the debtors for their services.
“Many of the people supervised by these companies wouldn’t be on probation to begin with if they had more money,” said Chris Albin-Lackey, senior researcher on business and human rights at Human Rights Watch. “Often, the poorer people are, the more they ultimately pay in company fees and the more likely it is that they will wind up behind bars.”
Companies refuse to disclose how much money they collect in fees from offenders under their supervision. Remarkably, the courts that hire them generally do not demand this information either. Human Rights Watch estimates that, in Georgia alone, the industry collects a minimum of US$40 million in fees every year from probationers. In other states, disclosure requirements are so minimal that is not possible even to hazard a guess how much probation companies are harvesting from probationers in fees…
Inserted from <Human Rights Watch>
Here is the HRW video.
And here are the two videos from Brave New Films. (petition there)
Most of the states were the ones I expected, but there were a couple surprises. They are Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Colorado, Utah, Washington, Missouri, Michigan, Montana and Idaho. I strongly suspect that in the Blue State and two purple states, it is red counties that use the services. Perhaps we can get some feedback from residents. Wherever they are, the companies miszt be outlawed.
12 Responses to “Debtors’ Prison in the US”
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I wish I had saved the link to a petition I signed yesterday to share with you. It is to get privatization out of he Justice system. It may have been with Avaaz or Daily Kos but I'm not sure. The private sector has no business profiting from sentencing of prisoners. This is just insane!
If I find it in my history, I'll post it here for everyone.
I found the page. It was firedoglake. If you feel the urge for justice, sign please. You can always opt out of receiving emails from them. I only get a few requests a year.
http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/private-prisons
Thanks, Patty. firedoglake knows me – it opened up with my info 😉 So I may have already signed it; if so, I signed it again.
Thanks Patty. Signed.
It's a separate, but related issue. Lot's of my guys have done time in a CCA prison. They said the had less food and worse than normal, even worse medical care than noormal, and poorly trained staff that ranged from abusive to incompetent. But their biggest complaint was a compledte absense of opportinities to improve themselves. Thank God Oregon fired them.
Well, I live in Colorado, in El Paso County which is one of the reddest counties in the state, and my husband was on probation for what seems like forever prior to being incarcerated in 2011. He always was supervised by a state government probation officer (different ones – I think they rotate caseload some to avoid burnout), he never had to pay supervision fees although he did have to pay for certain services, like therapy and polygraphs (which of course means I had to pay). Therapy was on a sliding scale and we were at the bottom, and while polygraphs were a flat rate, whenever possible the probation officer would give us a voucher to cover part of it.
I just spent some time googling and I have found two names in Colorado. "Colorado Probation Services" in Fort Collins (also a fairly red area) and "T I Probation Service" in Colorado Springs. All I can find for the Fort Collins one is the name and address. It has no other web presence. T I Probation Service is on several review sites like manta, kudzu, google+, citysearch, bbb and a couple of others but you know how those work, the site gets the info from a phone book or city directory and unless the business acknowledges it that's all the information there is. The listings don't even all show the same address. The business category is private investigations (!) In the wiki, CSRA out of Georgia is the company that claims to offer services in Colorado, but their website only shows locations in Georgia.
If anyone knows more I would be interested to hear.
Joanne, your hubby was not the right kind of prisoner for them. Private probation companies are about petty stuff, like the collection of fines and fees. Some municipal courts in El Paso County might use them.
I am relieved that Kentucky was not on the list. Our governor cancelled the contract with CCI, the private prison company during his first term. He can only serve two terms under Ky. statutes, I just hope we find someone half as good as he is next term.
This scam, and that is all it is, is another travesty against the poor. The tax payers still end up footing the bill, so all it is actually is a money maker for the owners of the probation companies.
If Kentucky returns to CCA, May Bought Bitch Mitch be the first Inmate.
I second that motion.
Of course I have heard of debtor's prison but I thought it was long done with. Apparently not. I checked it out in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors%27_prison#United_States_of_America and it seems that it is more common than I thought.
It is ludicrous to send someone to jail for a $41 fine when it costs the state more to incarcerate someone. During the incarceration period, a person is obviously prevented from working or looking for work. The way things seem to work in the US, if some one is working when they are sent to debtor's prison, they'll likely be fired making things worse. Seems like a revoving door to me.
Not only ludicrous, but also, InsaniTEA.