Probation Violations

Violation of Probation: How to Stay Out of Jail

If you are charged with violating your probation, then you have already been in trouble. The first thing you should do is get an attorney. Once you have an attorney, you need to get good advice on what you should do.

Do not give up. All is not automatically lost because a violation warrant is taken out on you. Let us help you.

Probation is a form of alternative sentencing where you serve your sentence out of jail. If you can’t do probation right, then they file a violation warrant and try and put you in jail.

The main goal for most people with probation violations is to get through it without doing any jail time. Having handled numerous violation charges, I have been successful at helping people reach that goal. It is also important to remember that sometimes, depending on the facts and circumstances of the case, jail time is a strong possibility. Other times, it is possible to get the violation dismissed altogether. A person with a minimal history and minor, technical violations is more likely to avoid jail than a person with a long history and a violation based on new arrests for felonies.

There is a process I have developed in helping people who are charged with probation violation. The process tends to work pretty good for my clients.  I can go over that in more detail with clients in person. Part of the process is remembering to report, even though you have been violated. Keep reporting.

If you don’t report to probation, you tell the judge that you just aren’t going to follow the rules. He is left with the only option of putting you in jail.

I get excuses from clients. “I was sick,”

If you are sick, prove it to your probation officer.  If they want you there that bad, throw up on them or give them chicken pox. Don’t let them put you in jail because you were sick.

Sometimes the excuse is, “My car was broke down.”

Take the bus, a cab, or call a friend. Put on your shoes and walk if you have to. It is that or go to jail.

The biggest one is, “I thought they were going to violate me for not paying anyway, so why bother going.”

I understand this one. For years I have had people tell me this, and I believe that they believe that they will be violated for not paying fees and costs. Some people have been violated solely for not paying costs and supervision fees. Go anyway, and if they still violate you, the judge is going to have a lot more sympathy for you if you are violated, than if you just don’t go.

Circuit Court Judge John H. Gasaway III of Tennessee’s 19th Judicial District, sentenced one of my client’s to serve out the balance of his sentence after a hearing. My client’s excuse for not reporting at the hearing was he didn’t have money to pay costs etc. Judge Gasaway told my client that he wasn’t sending him to jail because he was poor, but because he was lazy.

The case had been reset several months so he could act right and report, and he didn’t do it. My client sat in jail for several weeks before the hearing because he couldn’t make a $500.00 bond. There are not that many people that can’t get someone to make a bond that small for them. After he made bond, he had months to report and didn’t do it. The judge had no sympathy.

You can help yourself by helping your attorney. You help your attorney by following their advice and counsel. To do otherwise defeats the purpose of getting an attorney.