Jerry Swartz knows a thing or two about making money.
The Moberly, Mo., man owns an insurance agency, a real estate development company and other businesses. He has more than 30 employees. He鈥檚 done well for himself.
So when he describes the revenue strategy of private probation companies in Missouri, his words carry a certain gravitas.
鈥淧rivate probation companies are trying to violate their clients,鈥 Swartz says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 their business model.鈥
When he was charged with a DWI in 2014, Swartz ended up being supervised by private probation company American Court Services, as ordered by Ralls County Associate Judge David Mobley. He was ordered to wear a 鈥淪CRAM鈥 ankle bracelet that monitors alcohol use, even while he was in jail over alleged violations of his probation. State law says the bracelets are only to be ordered in use for people with multiple DWI convictions. Swartz had none.
People are also reading…
He paid. And he could afford it. But he and other advocates for reform of the private probation industry realize that the system takes horrible advantage of poor people, who end up in jail when they are violated and then also end up owing thousands of dollars in jail bills. It happens in Ralls, Jackson and Jefferson counties. In St. Francois and Dent counties. In Caldwell and Crawford counties. It happens because the state has almost no regulations, licensing or standards related to private probation companies.
This year, thanks to the efforts of state Rep. Justin Hill, R-Lake Saint Louis, that changed a little bit.
Hill is a former cop who was first alerted to the issue of private probation companies taking advantage of people in the judicial system by a constituent, John DeFriese of Wentzville. DeFriese鈥檚 son had been subjected to pretrial drug testing by Private Correctional Services in Jackson County. The testing over a period of years cost the family thousands of dollars, and DeFriese discovered it was using a lab that tests far below accepted federal standards.
Those drug test results, often posted to a publicly accessible court website, are used by judges in Missouri to jail defendants for violations of probation on misdemeanor allegations. When DeFriese paid for private testing at a lab that followed federal standards, every result on his son was negative.
鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 believe this was happening,鈥 Hill says.
So he filed a bill that would require private probation companies to follow the federal standard, as the state鈥檚 Department of Corrections and probation officers do. The bill would also relieve defendants from having to drive more than 50 miles to meet with their private probation officer. The new law took effect Aug. 28.
with only one dissenting vote. It was cast by state Rep. Jeff Pogue, R-Salem, home of MPPS, the private probation company that has in the courtroom of Dent County Associate Circuit Judge Brandi Baird.
When I called MPPS to talk to Lisa Blackwell, who runs the office, she hung up on me.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have nothing to say to you,鈥 she said.
MPPS is owned by , a private probation company founded by Judy Cowdry of St. Peters. She didn鈥檛 return calls for comment. It is one of more than a dozen such companies all over Missouri that in cooperation with some judges, work to increase county revenue by sending people back to jail over and over again for probation violations. Those violations are often related to the twice weekly drug testing required even when a case has nothing to do with drug or alcohol use.
Other than now being required to meet federal standards for that drug testing, private probation companies face nearly no oversight in Missouri. They aren鈥檛 licensed. They meet no published standards or guidelines. But in many counties they are treated like officers of the court.
鈥淭he thing you鈥檒l find about private probation is that the good judges don鈥檛 use it,鈥 Swartz says.
A report produced this year calls for massive reform of the probation-for-profit system in Missouri and several other states. The report calls for licensing, consistent standards, and a reduction in its use for pretrial bond release, particularly for misdemeanors and nonviolent offenses.
鈥淭he offender-funded system of justice is most burdensome and punitive for those who cannot afford its costs,鈥 the report finds. 鈥淲hen individuals are unable to pay, they face potential arrest, extended probation periods, and incarceration.鈥
Swartz and DeFriese plan to continue to ask the Missouri Legislature to chip away at the use of private probation companies as a profit center, for their owners and the counties they serve. They have a willing partner in Hill, who says the core of the issue for him is protecting people鈥檚 civil rights.
鈥淲hen you add it all up, you are talking about an insurmountable hole for most people,鈥 Swartz says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a cancer you can never get rid of once you get stuck in private probation.鈥
Jailed for being poor is Missouri epidemic: A series of columns from Tony Messenger
Tony Messenger has written about Missouri cases where people were charged for their time in jail or on probation, then owe more money than their fines or court costs.聽
The Pulitzer Prize board considered these columns when it decided to award the prize for commentary to metro columnist Tony Messenger.聽
In a twist of irony, one judge no longer calls them 鈥減ayment review hearings.鈥 Instead, he鈥檚 even more direct. Now they are called 鈥渄ebt colle…
鈥淭he jail is emptying out. People that do come in are able to bond out quickly. None of the girls here are being held for financial reasons. T…
In a case of civil contempt 鈥 such as when a judge jails a reporter for not revealing a source, or an attorney for failing to follow an order …
Even with the state鈥檚 top court making progress in eradicating the practice of putting people in jail because they can鈥檛 afford to be in jail,…
鈥淭here are a pile of cases where people owe us money,鈥 the judge told the defendant, a painter, who said he was having a hard time finding wor…
No longer, the court said in one voice, can judges in Missouri threaten indigent defendants with jail time for their inability to be able to a…
Disparate treatment of people charged with crimes offers a glimpse into a fundamental problem in the application of criminal justice in Missou…
Weiss wants the Legislature to make it illegal for counties to charge defendants for their time behind bars.
鈥淗ow can they cancel a court date then issue a warrant without even telling you the new court date?鈥 Sharp wonders.
His bill would stop the practice in Missouri of state police agencies avoiding state jurisdiction by seeking asset forfeiture under guise of f…
"He sat in jail because he was poor," public defender Matthew Mueller聽said of his client.
The two defendants are Exhibits A and B of why Missouri has become the front line in a national war on poverty and the courts.
She knows what she did was wrong. She knows she should have been punished.
鈥淚t's been a hard road,鈥 she told me recently. 鈥淩eally hard.鈥
For decades, Missouri鈥檚 corrections budget has been rising. So has its prison population, with a 鈥渢ough on crime鈥 philosophy filling prisons w…
鈥淲e鈥檙e hamstringing the very people who we want to go out and get a job,鈥 Lummus says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 self-defeating.鈥
In his regular appearance on the McGraw Milhaven show on KTRS radio, Metro columnist Tony Messenger discusses his ongoing debtors' prison series.
He did his time. Then he got the bill: $3,150 for his stay behind bars.
A year-end update on some of the cases Tony Messenger wrote about during 2018.
The primary difference between the poor people who have been 鈥渢errorized鈥 in Edmundson or Jennings or Ferguson, compared with those in Salem a…
The Court of Appeals in the Western District of Missouri determined that the practice of using the courts to try to collect board bills is ill…
Some counties in Missouri don't charge board bills. Those include聽the most urban counties in the state: both the city and county of 50度灰视频,…
I did my time and then some. This is how they get people. They keep them on probation and then if they don't pay their board bill they violate…
By 2009, Rapp was behind in her payments and the court revoked her probation. She did a couple of days in jail and her cash bond of $400 was a…
Every week in Missouri, a judge somewhere holds a crowded docket to collect room and board from people who were recently in jail. The judges c…
鈥淚 don鈥檛 see why he has to keep going to court every month,鈥 she says. Sharon uses her Social Security income to try to keep him out of jail. …
Because Precious Jones was late to jail, prosecutor and judge seek to add to her sentence.
The Missouri Supreme Court and Missouri Legislature should revisit their 2015 and 2016 efforts to reform courts. More work is necessary.
Other than now being required to meet federal standards for that drug testing, private probation companies face nearly no oversight in Missour…
鈥淚 messed up on probation,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t was my fault.鈥 Still, he doesn鈥檛 think it makes sense that he鈥檚 still hauled to court once a month wi…
Murr owed Dent County about $4,000 for her 鈥渂oard bill鈥 for the 95 days she had been jailed.
The domestic violence victim, Gaddis says, wouldn鈥檛 make a report to police because she feared going to jail herself and losing her child.聽
鈥淭hey make you jump through hoops,鈥 Bote says, 鈥渁nd then they keep moving the hoops higher.鈥
William Everts stole from a church. Almost immediately, he knew it was a bad idea.
Bergen has the sort of back story that would inspire one of the movies or television episodes based in the Ozarks that seem to be all the rage…
Clark ended up spending 495 days in county jail awaiting a trial that still hasn鈥檛 come.
Pritchett first called me last year, after I wrote about a St. Francois County woman who was sent to prison for failing to pay court costs. He…
Rob Hopple had been in jail since May after falling behind on payments on an ankle bracelet. Court dates kept coming and going, with the prose…
The bills are that high because the two criminal defendants couldn鈥檛 afford to pay for an initial sentence behind bars for relatively minor of…
鈥淭he practical reality is that people are being arrested for being poor,鈥 Mueller says. 鈥淎nd there鈥檚 nothing they can do about it. They just s…
At least twice in recent years, the Missouri Supreme Court has overturned harsh sentences issued by a judge after she sent people to prison so…
Branson, in early 2018, was in Desloge, Mo., now, living with her 15-year-old son, checking in with her parole officer, hoping never to go bac…
Officially, Victoria Branson鈥檚 probation was revoked because she never paid the state the past due support and the court costs, which rang up …