Probation Reform

What we want

To reform state and local probation systems by significantly reducing the number of people under correctional supervision, restricting the length of probation sentences, and ending the offender-funded model, including prohibiting contracting with private providers.

• Prohibit contracting with private probation service providers at the state and local level.
• Inability to pay fines and/or fees should never result in incarceration.
• Eliminate “pay-only probation,” which places someone on probation for their inability to pay court fines, during which they are also charged supervision fees.
• Restrict the maximum length of probation sentences to 5 years or less.
• Restrict the fees that can be applied to individuals while on probation.
• Revise the current sentences of those on extended probation sentences.
• Restore voting rights to those on felony probation.

Reasons for Reform

Probation should be a means of preventing and reducing incarceration by providing an alternative to imprisonment that allows people to remain in the community and maintain stability.

However, in Georgia, it has been applied in an excessive manner and become an overly punitive system that disproportionately impacts low-income individuals and sets people up for failure and re-entry into the system.

Overgrown: The largest system in the nation

Georgia has the largest probation population in the nation with nearly 420,000 individuals under misdemeanor and felony probation and by far has the highest rate of probation in the US.

The national statistic often shared is 4.5 million Americans are under probation or “community supervision.” That represents 1 in 55 US adults. Compare that to Georgia where 1 in 25 adults are under community supervision.

Average felony probation sentences in Georgia are 6.3 years, near double the US average.”

– Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform, 2016

This means Georgia also has the highest rate of “correctional supervision” in the US which includes incarceration, probation, and parole. You can see in the chart below how that vast majority of Georgia’s correctional system is made up of the state and local probation system.

Private companies burden individuals with high monthly fees that far exceed the fines of their sentence and non-payment can result in probation violation that risks re-incarceration. The use of private providers results in Georgians in the correctional system being treated as sources of profit instead of helping them recover.

Georgia’s Probation Population

The probation system in Georgia is almost equally divided between misdemeanor and felony probation cases as can be seen in recent years of data.

Overly Lengthy Sentencing

Georgians are being given probation sentences that are far too long, far greater than the national average:

• Average felony probation sentences in Georgia are 6.3 years, near double the US average.
• Over 37% of individuals have a probation sentence longer than 10 years.

Private Probation: An Offender-Funded System

Private companies with state or local contracts are allowed to charge individuals on probation with all kinds of extra fees and surcharges that far exceed their court fines. Failure to pay these fees can represent a violation of probation and risk re-entry into incarceration. The use of private providers results in Georgians within the correctional system being treated as sources of profit instead of helping them recover.

And it is not simply a transfer of the cost of monitoring onto the individual – the companies charge extra in order to generate a profit.

Digital monitoring is an increasingly common practice which involves an individual wearing a GPS tracking ankle bracelet that can cost the individual hundreds of dollars per month in fees.

Private probation companies should simply not be allowed. There should be no profit generation involved in any part of the correctional system, including the probation system.

Probation has the potential to be transformed but only with systemic changes.