By Tyler H. Jones
LaGrange Daily News
LAGRANGE, Ga. — Under a recent ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court, as many as a thousand misdemeanor offenders in Troup County who’ve failed to comply with the terms of their probation are having their arrest warrants canceled, effectively walking free.
In a nutshell, the November ruling by the high court says that state law doesn’t allow for probationers’ sentences to be paused or suspended — a practice called “tolling” — when or if the probationer stop showing up or complying with his or her probation terms.
In the past, it has been a common practice for courts handling misdemeanor charges to toll the rest of a probated sentence if the person stops reporting to his or her probation officer.
For example: a person is arrested on a misdemeanor marijuana charge in November, and in January is sentenced to and begins 12 months’ probation. Then suddenly in August, eight months later, he stops reporting to his probation officer.
Under the old way of handling situations like this, an arrest warrant would be issued for the probationer and his probation would be tolled — meaning that even if they’re picked up by police at the end of December, they still have four months of probation to complete.
Now, under the state Supreme Court’s new ruling, if the probationer manages to hide out long enough for the probation sentence to expire, in that case at the end of December, his probation ends and there’s nothing the state — or the probation officer — can do about it.
Locally, Troup County Sheriff James Woodruff and State Court Judge Jeanette Little said this ruling could present a problem, as many offenders are required to undergo substance-abuse counseling, domestic-violence abuse prevention training and other conditions of probation meant to help them from re-offending. They’re hoping the state legislature will address the problem in their upcoming 2015 session.
The problem was initially brought to the state Supreme Court and originated in Augusta, where a private, family-owned and for-profit probation company was providing supervision for misdemeanor probationers.
The suit alleged that the company, Sentinel Offender Services, was collecting fees that it had no authority to impose because it never had a contract with the chief superior court judge there; however, the high court disagreed with that argument. It did find, however, that the company was illegally tolling probationers’ sentences, thereby extended their sentences beyond the terms ordered by the court.
Sentinel also sells and markets its own electronic monitoring devices and operates its own monitoring center. Before the November ruling, complainants in the lawsuit alleged that Sentinel was tacking on these services without a judge’s order after probationers were arrested because they failed to pay the fines and fees or comply with the probation terms. The so-called ankle monitors cost additional fees for the probationer — in essence, more profit for the probation company. A judge ruled the company did not have statutorial authority to tack on those services without a judge’s order. The company had gross revenues in 2012 in excess of $5.5 million dollars and is owned by a father and son, according to documents from the state Supreme Court.
Jack Long, an Augusta-based attorney who represented those who sued Sentinel, said the profit motive for private probation companies is at odds with the spirit of the American justice system.
“When you go to Best Buy, and you want to buy a $200 TV, you know the guy there is going to try to up-sell you, and sell you an $800 TV,” Long said. “That’s called free enterprise. I have no problem with free enterprise, but the criminal justice system is not based on profitability or sales — that’s the whole problem with the system.”
In Troup County, a private company called Judicial Correction Services (JCS) supervises misdemeanor probationers. The Daily News reached out to the local JCS office, who directed us to their corporate media representative. Phone calls to JCS’s media representative had not been returned at press time, but Little, the state court judge, said she’s seen no problems with JCS like the ones alleged against Sentinel.
“There are cases, but they’re very rare, when we’ve used a GPS monitor,” Little said. “It’s never because someone just didn’t show up at probation. The few times I’ve used it, it’s been in connection with some kind of either domestic violence, or some kind of harassing, stalking sort of situation where we wanted to make sure that person was not going around the person they’d been ordered to stay away from.”
Little explained that additional services, such as GPS monitoring, must be ordered by her and cannot be solely put in place by the probation officer.
Still, under the Georgia Supreme Court’s recent ruling, thousands of probationers could simply walk away from their sentence with little or no repercussions.
Woodruff, the county sheriff, said that his deputies are no longer serving tolling warrants as per the court’s ruling.
“Of course, you know we stopped serving the tolling warrants and we sent them back to the judge,” said Woodruff. “I think there were only three or four people here who actually got out of jail (because of the high court’s ruling).”
Even though only a small number of people were released from the Troup County Jail, the sheriff said the court’s ruling could be a major problem for law enforcement and the courts.
“I think this is very big, though,” he said. “If you go to court and you’re sentenced to probation, and you didn’t do what you were supposed to do, and you were on the run now, if you’re on misdemeanor probation and you didn’t get the treatment that was ordered for you, there’s just not much we can do about it.”
He echoed Little’s sentiment and said it would take the action of Georgia lawmakers to bring order back to the probation system.
“I’d like to see the legislature pass a law and reinstate tolling,” he said. “Otherwise, if you get put on probation, why do what you’re supposed to do?”