A Senate committee Wednesday approved legislation designed to circumvent a court decision that jeopardizes the state’s private probation industry.
“The ultimate effect on prosecutions and the effect on sentences if nothing happens is victims of crimes are going to be impacted significantly,” C.R. Chisholm, the solicitor general in Athens Clarke County State Court, said of what could happen if House Bill 837 does not pass.
The bill, by Rep. Mark Hamilton, R-Cumming, is designed to address a Richmond County judge’s ruling in September that it is unconstitutional to stop the clock from running on the sentences of misdemeanor probationers who disappear or stop reporting. The bill also would require that judges have a hearing with the probationer who has allegedly absconded, but the current version says that hearing comes after an order to stop the clock on the sentence, known as a tolling order, has been issued.
The state cleared the way for private probation companies in 2000 in an effort to free up overburdened state probation workers. The companies soon began handling large numbers of low-level offenders in State Court systems that lacked the resources to manage them. But critics have said the companies have made millions of dollars by preying on poor people who can’t afford to pay fines of a few hundred dollars all at once.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported that private companies have persuaded judges to stop the clock from running on sentences that are no more than 12 months and then issue arrest warrants for probationers who had allegedly stopped paying monthly supervision fees of $35 to $45. The state’s own probation fee is $23.
Fourteen people who brought lawsuits in Richmond County — the cases that prompted HB 837 — were being supervised by Sentinel Offender Services, the largest private probation company operating in Georgia. They said they had stopped paying their monthly supervision fees because they believed they had completed their sentences. They said they were arrested years later when the outstanding warrants against them were discovered.
Most of these people were put on probation because they were unable to pay all their court fines for crimes such as illegally turning right on red, disorderly conduct and drinking in public. Chisholm said he disagreed with a characterization that misdemeanor offenders are not dangerous because some are convicted of drunken driving or domestic violence.
But Southern Center for Human Rights attorney Sarah Geraghty told the Senate Judiciary Non-Civil Committee that backers of the bill are trying to go further than just addressing issues in Judge Daniel Craig’s order.
“These transparency provisions should be noncontroversial,” Geraghty said. “They don’t hurt the (private probation) company’s ability to do business. We need to have accountability.”
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