The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled Monday that private companies may continue to monitor probationers in that state but that it is illegal to elongate a probationer's sentence from the original sentence. Thirteen plaintiffs filed suit against Sentinel Offender Services challenging the constitutionality of the state's probation law and alleging that the company violated their due process rights. In a unanimous decision, Chief Justice Thompson wrote that:
While the supervision of probation is a function historically performed by state probation officers, the mere act of privatizing these services does not violate due process. Nothing on the face of the statute allows Sentinel or any other private probation company to deprive an individual of his or her property or liberty without due process of law nor is there anything which authorizes the creation of a private probation system that is so fundamentally unfair that it fails to comport with our notions of due process. The due process clause does not prohibit the State from entering into a contract with a private entity for the provision of probation supervision services but requires that when it chooses to do so the State continue to provide due process to individuals under its supervision.
The court also upheld the authority of judges to impose electronic monitoring on probationers.
The role of private companies in the US justice system has been widely debated. In June the American Civil Liberties Union reported inhumane conditions at privately run Texas prisons. In 2012 the US Supreme Court ruled that federal prison inmates could not seek damages from private prison employees.
(Published by Jurist – November 25, 2014)