A bill meant to shore up the private probation industry in Georgia hit a wall in the Legislature when proposed changes added protections for misdemeanor probationers.
House Bill 837 — with its four amendments — was “tabled” Monday, a vote that in effect puts legislation to the side until backers can shore up support that they want.
On one side of the debate is the contention that the bill was needed to ensure low-level, nonviolent probationers are supervised as well as to ensure the survival of the private probation industry. That industry sprang up to relieve the state of the responsibility of supervising offenders found guilty of misdemeanors, traffic offenses or local ordinances.
The push for HB 837 was spurred by a court ruling last September that said a judge couldn’t stop the clock on a sentence if a private probationer had reportedly stopped checking in and paying fees. The ruling, which is under appeal, also said it was unconstitutional for private probation companies to use electronic monitoring. The sponsor of the bill was trying to rectify both concerns.
“The inability to stop that clock means, in theory, all 320,000 of these people today could hide from their probation officer and we have no ability to stop their probation sentence,” said bill sponsor Rep. Mark Hamilton, R-Cumming.
For the most part, probation is ordered — for 12 months or less — because the offenders are poor and must pay their fines over time.
But critics say supervision involves probationers or one of their friends or relatives coming to the company’s office simply to pay a monthly supervision fee. The companies ensure profits by threatening jail if the debts are not paid, opponents say.
“It’s about money, folks,” said Rep. Chuck Sims, R-Ambrose. “It’s about M-O-N-E-Y. Dollar sign. Dollar sign.”
Sims complained that private probation companies first apply funds the probationers pay to supervision fees and then to court fines and restitution. “It’s indentured servitude,” Sims said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last month that people were being arrested and taken to jail because they owed supervision fees that accumulated even after they had paid all their court fines and restitution. Some were jailed until they paid their debts to the companies at a cost of $50 a day to local taxpayers.
Last week, Human Rights Watch reported that Georgia led the nation in private probation.
Pointing to the original version of HB 837, Rep. Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, the House minority leader, said, “This bill is bad.”
She successfully proposed changes to the bill that led to it being tabled as many Republicans crossed the aisle to support Abrams’ moves in the GOP-dominated House.
The House voted to amend the bill so that judges could stop the clock on sentences of absconded probationers but they did not have to do it. The House also agreed that private companies could not charge more for supervision than state probationers charge felons; private companies charge $35 to $45 a month while the state charge is $32.
One other change was a private probation officer had to tell a judge what specific steps were taken to locate a probationer. For now, most companies simply collect fees from probationers who report to their offices and do not try to locate those who stop coming. The final amendment said a probationer had the right to come to court and explain why they had stopped reporting rather than judges issuing arrest warrants simply based on the word of the probation officer.
“In the event there is a more complicated story, this gives the probationer the right to explain,” Abrams said.
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