Source: prisonlegalnews.org 11/15/23
An article published in Reason on January 26, 2023, cited numerous problems in probation systems nationwide, describing them as a “quagmire.” For the article, the magazine, a publication of the Libertarian California-based Reason Foundation, profiled Jennifer Schroeder, who was handed a drug charge in Minnesota and ended up placed on probation for 40 years.
There she joined over three million Americans who were on probation at the end of 2020, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. That’s over half the total number of people under some form of criminal justice supervision in the U.S. While many states cap probation terms at five years or less for felony offenses, some allow supervision periods to extend as long as the maximum prison sentence for the charged offense – which can be decades or even life. Those states include Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and – until recently – Minnesota, where Schroeder successfully advocated for a change in that state’s probation practices.
Probation terms can often be extended for technical violations, such as failing to pay fees or notify probation officers of a change in employment or residence. Even missing meetings can add months and years to a probation term. A 2020 report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch found that people on community supervision – which includes both parole and probation – “must comply with an average of 10 to 20 conditions a day.”
While many of these conditions are not onerous, such as prohibitions on possessing firearms or using illegal drugs, others include not buying or selling a car without permission, or abstaining from alcohol use – even when the underlying charge did not involve alcohol – or avoiding “persons or places of disreputable or harmful character.” In New York, Georgia, Kansas, Texas and South Carolina, probationers are prohibited from engaging in vaguely-worded “injurious and vicious habits.”
Often, probation terms include evening curfews and require probationers to waive certain rights, such as consenting to searches at the whim of supervision officers, or not being able to travel outside the county without permission. About a third of people on probation reside in states that do not allow them to vote until their supervision period ends, according to an October 2022 report by The Sentencing Project.
Fortunately, we in California on probation and parole can successfully challenge restrictions on alcohol usage when alcohol had no bearing on the index offense. I still remember the case: People v. Dominguez (1967). Parole officers, however, it seems ignore that fact. Parole dropped it when I challenged it in court during a habeas action. But the “avoiding persons or places of disrepute or harmful character” bothers me. How would that not be void for vagueness? Any reasonable judge would rule such a condition unconstitutional in a heartbeat. Perhaps some states don’t have reasonable judges.
Seems like they just focus on probation from state courts, but maybe they should look at federal probation as well. My term of supervision was twice the length of my sentence. I was at Lompoc FCI with a man that got a sentence of 27 months ( I don’t know why but the Feds love to tell you your sentence in months. 60 for me.) and a term of supervision, probation , of life. The rules are manifold & sometimes confusing & often ambiguous. So much fun, but at least most of the many officers that I have had over the last 5 years are very low key. I really hope to get a positive ruling in court next month & finish this 4 years early & be as free as anyone can on the registry.
First things first, what the hell is the point of putting someone on “Probation” for 40 years? Probation is supposed to be an opportunity to prove you have reformed your ways. How can that happen if your evaluation period continues until you die?
Marginalization, surveillance and elimination. These are the tools of the Populist State. Make sure that nobody that may disagree has any voice to disagree with. Not the entire purpose of the “Justice System” just a useful bonus.
A few things that the article overlooks:
You’ve got to be f***ing kidding me!!!
This country is lost!
Probation and parole is different for people on the registry, me personally i did 9 years of felony probation it was crazy. One time my PO stoped by to do a home visit, as we’re talking I hear a knock at the door, so I look out the window and it’s 10 cops, the probation department and a police task force, in full swat gear. I turned to my PO and said oh they came with you and he replied “no they didn’t come with me” and he opens the door, When they saw him standing there all their faces dropped.
They were all pumped up too, My PO said everything’s good here you guys can take off they said are you sure he said yeah I’m sure and slammed the door in their face.
He turned to me and my wife and said they we’re about to flip this whole house upside down.
This is very true. When I started probation, my PO told me that her job was “to put me in prison” and not help me be successful. When going over the terms, I questioned the one term, “do not possess or view pornography, or sexually oriented, sexually stimulating material” and asked her what sexually oriented material was. She said “whatever I say it is”. So, very vague on what it was.
Additionally, during my probation, I had several job offers making good money and she shot them down for no reason.
The other people on her case load all said that she wanted us to be dirt poor and miserable. She even told me to sell my car because “You don’t deserve to have a nice car”. I had a 2003 Escape.
I didn’t have much trouble on supervision. My PO was alright. She was kind of an airhead, so that made things easier for me, although she sometimes repeated DOC brainwashed talking points. Since I lived with 3 registrants in a rooming house, ROPE (Milwaukee’s “Sex Offender” police) would come by every month for surprise checks, but that came to a complete stop when Covid hit. That was the best thing that happened to me, because it ended in-person SOT. I really got tired of those sistahs who led the group. The WI DOC hired them in hopes that they can “relate” better to almost all black SOT client groups. But them bitc*s weren’t fooling me, especially that doctor who accused me of minimizing my offense and not having “empathy” for victims. They should throw a family member of hers in prison 3 years for viewing something on their computer. Let’s then see how much empathy they should have. I really hate the WI DOC. I remember telling a prison intake classification specialist that I probably wouldn’t have served more than a week in jail for my offense.in my native California. He responded “that’s because it’s the left coast.” I almost punched that motherf*ck*r in the nose over that comment. Here I’m facing 3 years of my life, and this midwestern hick wants to turn it into some political game. Anyways, after I got that 3 years on paper out of the way, I fled that wretched state and never looked back.