Editing Rutherford County, Tennessee (section)

===Privatized corrections===
Rutherford County outsourced some of its probation administration to Providence Community Corrections, and, in 2015, the arrangement was alleged in court to have violated racketeering laws—jailing impoverished people who did not pay court fines for misdemeanor offenses and traffic violations, and refusing to waive fees for indigent convicts. Seven probationers, many sick or disabled, living on food stamps, charged in court that they lost housing, jobs, cars—after multiple threats from Providence that they would be jailed for failing to pay.<ref name="Private_Probation_Company_nytimes_com">{{cite news |last= |first= |date=October 1, 2015 |title=Private Probation Company Accused of Abuses in Tennessee |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/us/private-probation-company-accused-of-abuses-in-tennessee.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=October 13, 2021}}</ref><ref name="probation_violations_2014_10_18_commercialappeal_com">Willard, Michelle: [https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/crime/2014/10/18/probation-violations-help-fill-county-jail/17522985/ "Probation violations help fill county jail,"] October 18, 2014 ''Murfreesboro [[Daily News Journal]] in [[Memphis Commercial Appeal]],'' retrieved October 22, 2021</ref>  In 2017, Rutherford County consented to end the use of for-profit, private probation companies, and PCC agreed to pay $14 million, spread among up to 25,000 court-identified victims, to settle the class action lawsuit.<ref name="thousands_2019_01_08_newschannel5_com">{{cite news |last= |first= |date=January 8, 2019 |title=Thousands receive settlement checks in for-profit probation case |url=https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/thousands-who-paid-fees-to-rutherford-county-probation-company-receive-settlement-checks-this-week |work=[[WTVF-TV]] |location=Nashville |access-date=October 13, 2021}}</ref><ref name="settlement_2018_05_07_prisonlegalnews_org">{{cite news |last= |first= |date=May 7, 2018 |title=14.3 Million Settlement for Probationers Subject to Extortion by Private Company |url=https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2018/may/7/143-million-settlement-probationers-subject-extortion-private-company/ |work=Prison Legal News |location= |access-date=October 13, 2021}}</ref>