Appeal Filed in Case Against Private Probation Company in California

In 2018, Equal Justice Under Law filed a lawsuit against a private corporation, Leaders in Community Alternatives (LCA), Inc., for routinely extorting impoverished individuals on probation in Alameda County, California. Alameda County and LCA entered into a deal: LCA agents would act as private probation officers by placing people on GPS ankle monitors, surveilling them, and deciding if they had successfully completed probation. In exchange, Alameda County would pay nothing for probation services. This meant that if LCA wanted to cover its costs and make a profit, it had to extract as much money as possible from the very people it was supposed to be supervising.

LCA carried out its plan with little oversight: it routinely put probationers on ankle monitors and began to charge them $25.50 a day, and up to $39 a day, for “supervision services,” regardless of whether those probationers could afford such fees. If probationers didn’t come up with the amounts demanded by LCA, the corporation would threaten them with jail or threaten to falsely report that they had violated their probation. LCA never told probationers that it’s illegal to send someone to jail for failure to pay probation fees; instead, the corporation convinced these vulnerable people that they would be incarcerated if they did not comply with LCA’s demands for more money. Under the stress of LCA’s illegal threats, people like Plaintiff Robert Jackson went to extreme lengths to stay out of jail. LCA demanded enormous sums from Robert and threatened him with jail if he didn’t comply, despite the fact that his wife had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away, he was the sole caretaker for his three daughters, and he was unemployed and completely without the means to pay LCA. Robert was terrified LCA would send him to jail, leaving his daughters without a caretaker, so he sold his car, moved out of his house, and became homeless for three months to comply with the corporation’s monetary demands. His is just one of many stories of desperate individuals forced to pay under LCA’s threats of jail — a practice that amounts to extortion.

In December 2019, a federal judge ruled that LCA’s threats against people like Robert did not amount to extortion if they had signed an agreement to be on private probation during their onboarding process. Most probationers entered into these agreements without an understanding of the terms, without explanation from LCA, and sometimes under the threat of jail if they did not sign. Still, the federal judge found that the existence of these so-called agreements made LCA’s threats for money legitimate “regardless of the amount” the corporate sought. This ruling is a dangerous no-limits rule for corporate exploitation. If the judge’s interpretation of extortion is allowed to stand, it would technically be legal for a corporation threaten any person who has signed a contract for services. For instance, if you agreed to pay your cell phone provider $35 a month, they could then threaten your family and demand any amount of money without that conduct being “wrongful” in the court’s eyes. Clearly, such an interpretation is dangerous, especially when applied to corporations that have control over vulnerable individuals in the criminal legal system.

Equal Justice Under Law has filed an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to challenge this irrational ruling that would allow private corporations to exploit criminal defendants endlessly in their pursuit of profit. Equal Justice Under Law’s opening brief was filed on April 24, and LCA has requested an extension to respond. LCA continues to operate in California while this case is pending, and Equal Justice Under Law continues to fight the unjust practices of privatization in our criminal system.