Post by libby on Jan 24, 2016 1:01:53 GMT -6
Getting busted with a small amount of fake marijuana led to a more expensive lesson in criminal justice than Timothy Lee Cook could have imagined.
Cook, 54, agreed to a plea deal in Hardin County District Court last summer that kept him out of jail, but cost him $186 in fines and court fees. He couldn’t afford it himself. Bedeviled by mental disorders, he hasn’t held a job for more than 20 years. His 74-year-old mother put up the money.
Now Cook is tasting the cost of probation. Every month for two years, he has to pay a $25 monitoring fee to a company that serves as a privatized probation agency. Had he been arrested in one of the many Kentucky counties that monitor misdemeanor offenders themselves, the service wouldn’t have cost him a dime. And if Cook’s probation company had based its fee on his ability to pay, as district judges are supposed to ensure, his monitoring would be free or discounted.
“I told them I was on disability because I have dyslexia and bipolar disorder, and I figured, well, maybe they’d work with me a little bit, maybe make my payments a little cheaper. But, no, it’s one flat rate,” Cook said before leaving on his 32-mile drive home to Leitchfield.
See more: www.state-journal.com/latest%20headlines/2016/01/23/inside-ky-s-unregulated-private-probation-industry
Cook, 54, agreed to a plea deal in Hardin County District Court last summer that kept him out of jail, but cost him $186 in fines and court fees. He couldn’t afford it himself. Bedeviled by mental disorders, he hasn’t held a job for more than 20 years. His 74-year-old mother put up the money.
Now Cook is tasting the cost of probation. Every month for two years, he has to pay a $25 monitoring fee to a company that serves as a privatized probation agency. Had he been arrested in one of the many Kentucky counties that monitor misdemeanor offenders themselves, the service wouldn’t have cost him a dime. And if Cook’s probation company had based its fee on his ability to pay, as district judges are supposed to ensure, his monitoring would be free or discounted.
“I told them I was on disability because I have dyslexia and bipolar disorder, and I figured, well, maybe they’d work with me a little bit, maybe make my payments a little cheaper. But, no, it’s one flat rate,” Cook said before leaving on his 32-mile drive home to Leitchfield.
See more: www.state-journal.com/latest%20headlines/2016/01/23/inside-ky-s-unregulated-private-probation-industry