Resource: Rodriguez v. Providence Community Corrections

Providence Community Corrections (PCC), a private for-profit organization, was the manager of the misdemeanor probation system for Rutherford County, Tennessee. Those who could afford to pay the fees were placed on unsupervised probation; those who could not were supervised by PCC. PCC was funded solely by the people it supervised. Probationers were threatened with arrest and revocation of probation which would result in additional fees and court costs. PCC advised the County on dispositions and extensions of probation. No inquiry was made as to the probationer’s ability to pay. PCC had the discretion to pay itself first from the fees paid by the probationers. Therefore, many indigent probationers continued to pay probation fees even after they had paid their original court costs.