Probation Privateers Prey on the Poor

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/bill-berkowitz/55198/probation-privateers-prey-on-the-poor

Probation Privateers Prey on the Poor
Corporate America | Prison Reform
by Bill Berkowitz | April 5, 2014 - 10:08am

Last April, in “Debtors Prisons, Once a 19th- Century Relic, Again Wreaking Havoc in U.S.,” I wrote: “The jailing of people unable to pay fines and court costs is no longer a relic of the 19th century American judicial system. Debtors’ prisons are alive and well in one-third of the states in this country.”

A recent press release from the Ohio American Civil Liberties Union appeared to strike a blow against this appalling phenomenon. The release stated that, “the Supreme Court of Ohio distributed a new bench card to all of the state’s judges, giving much needed instructions to avoid the unconstitutional practice of sending people to jail when they owe the court fines and are unable to pay. The Ohio Supreme Court’s bench card was a definite blow to what had become the routine jailing in several states of people who were not able to pay fines imposed for a relatively minor crime committed.”

Now, however, a new report by Human Rights Watch has revealed another way that poor people are being financially burdened and, in many cases, imprisoned for not having enough money to pay their court-imposed fines.

According to the report: “Profiting from Probation: America’s ‘Offender-Funded’ Probation Industry,” privately-owned companies handling the probation of offenders are “routinely jailing probationers” for not being able to pay fees owed to those companies.