The Georgia House agreed to provisions that would provide some legal protections for probationers under the supervision of a private company but only after the most recent draft of the legislation was stripped of a proposed cap on what those business can charge.
House Bill 837 passed with only nominal opposition — 152-9 — on Friday, almost two weeks after it was initially up for a vote but was then pulled back over opposition to a proposed change. The revision would have capped what companies can charge probationers for supervising them at the rate the state bills felony probationers for its supervision.
Most probation supervision companies operating in Georgia charge $35-$40 a month plus any additional costs like electronic monitoring, which costs probationers $7 -$12 a day. The state’s monthly probation fee is $23 and the cost to probationers for electronic monitoring, usually only used for sexual predators, is $4.50 a day.
“This bill is a gift to the private probation industry,” said Sarah Geraghty, senior attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights. “It will permit private companies to enrich themselves by charging people convicted of misdemeanors enormous probation supervision fees and enormous fees for electronic monitoring.”
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mark Hamilton, R-Cumming, said when the bill was being debated that legislation was needed to ensure “probation continues as a viable alternative” and without it, a lawsuit against one private probation company could jeopardize the entire industry.
Richmond County Judge Daniel Craig ruled last September that private probation companies could not provide electronic monitoring and that the clock running on their sentences —usually 12 months or less — could not be stopped, or tolled, if a probationer disappeared or stopped reporting.
The 14 people who brought the lawsuits complained they had been arrested years after they thought they had completed their probation sentences on warrants that one company, Sentinel Offender Services, secured because they allegedly owed the company supervision fees.
Most of the the people under the supervision of private companies are poor and are on probation only because they could not immediately pay their fines for offenses such as turning right on red, driving without a license or public drunkenness.
The revised bill, which now goes to the Senate, specifically states private companies can provide electronic monitoring and it allows for tolling. The bill says, however, that a private probation officer seeking an arrest warrant for absconding must detail what steps were taken to find a probationer who has stopped reporting and a court must hold a hearing to give the probationer a chance to explain why he stopped seeing his probation officer.
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