A Judge in Louisiana Is Letting a Private Company Charge People to Get Out of Jail, Says the ACLU

[babylonsister]

http://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2017/08/a-judge-in-louisiana-is-letting-a-private-company-charge-people-to-get-out-of-jail-says-the-aclu/

A Judge in Louisiana Is Letting a Private Company Charge People to Get Out of Jail, Says the ACLU
Lawyer calls this “a court-approved shakedown.”

Nathalie Baptiste
Aug. 8, 2017 1:43 PM


For some people arrested in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, posting bail is often not enough to get them out of jail. According to a new class action suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Louisiana, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, the parish jail is requiring these arrestees to pay an organization that handles pretrial supervision services before being released. Attorneys argue this constitutes a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees equal protection, and the Fourth Amendment, which protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures.

The complaint alleges that some of those who have been arrested and held at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison (a jail, despite its name) must pay Rehabilitation Home Incarceration—an organization that provides pretrial supervision services such as ankle monitoring—a $525 fee in order to be released from jail after bail is posted. During supervision, which may or may not have an end date, these individuals must pay monthly fees for ankle monitors that they often don’t receive, or for mandatory classes run by RHI employees that they often don’t even know about. If they’re unable to pay, the plaintiffs allege, they are threatened by RHI officials or East Baton Rouge Parish law enforcement officers with additional jail time.

“They’re operating a court-approved shakedown,” says Brandon Buskey, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project.

RHI says it has supervised thousands of individuals in Louisiana since it opened its doors in 1993. RHI did not respond to request for comment.

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http://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2017/08/a-judge-in-louisiana-is-letting-a-private-company-charge-people-to-get-out-of-jail-says-the-aclu/

[dchill]

1. We are swiftly plummeting back ...

to the Good Old Days.

[dalton99a]

2. Kick.

[Midnight Writer]

3. When Government is run like a Business.