Fred Robinson was placed on probation for eleven months and\u00a0twenty-nine days after he was unable to pay a $2500 fine for\u00a0misdemeanor marijuana charges. The court in Rutherford County,\u00a0Tennessee placed his case under the care of a private probation service\u2014a for-profit company managing Mr. Robinson\u2019s probation. Over four\u00a0years later, Mr. Robinson is still paying back his debt. He has been\u00a0unable to pay off the fine and the additional fees and penalties that the\u00a0private probation companies have levied against him. Moreover, Mr.\u00a0Robinson suffers from health conditions that make him dependent on a\u00a0disability public benefits. The only violations he committed during his\u00a0probation were failures to pay these fines, which can lead to jail time.\u00a0As such, Mr. Robinson, like so many other indigent probationers, is\u00a0trapped in a system that ultimately extracts far more than just the initial\u00a0court-imposed fine and can eventually lead back to incarceration. These\u00a0private probation practices have come under scrutiny in recent years.\u00a0Though due process challenges have largely failed, recent cases\u00a0comparing private probation to unconstitutional debtors\u2019 prisons and\u00a0bills in state and federal legislatures suggest solutions to ending private\u00a0probation.<\/p>\n