Selling blood plasma. Forgoing rent payments and getting evicted. Turning over all of the government benefits that a family relies on to eat.

These are just some of the ways residents of Rutherford County, Tennessee say they have responded to the private probation system that they allege illegally extorts money from them, even though they are so poor they can’t afford to pay.

On Thursday, lawyers with the non-profit Equal Justice Under Law and law firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwall, & Berkowitz PC filed a suit against the county and against the private probation company, Providence Community Corrections, Inc. (PCC), alleging they “have conspired to extract as much money as possible from misdemeanor probationers through a pattern of illegal and shocking behavior.”   SOURCE