Scott Broden

USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

MURFREESBORO — PCC, the probation company involved with Rutherford County in a federal lawsuit, will stop services for the courts by April, the County Commission decided Thursday.

The commission spent several minutes in private executive session with County Attorney Jim Cope before voting on a resolution to extend the services with PCC (also known as Pathways Community Corrections and previously named Providence Community Corrections) through only March 31.

"Pathways Community Corrections Inc. has indicated that it is desirous of terminating its ongoing probation services contract with Rutherford County but is willing to extend its services through March 31, 2016," the resolution states. "It is in the best interest of the citizens of Rutherford County, Tenn., to extend services of Pathways Community Corrections Inc. to and through March 31, 2016, in order to administer the probation services program in Rutherford County."

Judge orders some PCC inmates released

A federal lawsuit filed in October accuses Rutherford County and PCC of working together to extort people on probation by charging excessive fees.

Many of the seven people named in the lawsuit rely on government assistance and have said in court testimony or documents that PCC's excessive fees leave them struggling to pay bills and facing extended probation terms because they cannot pay court costs.

Chief U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp ordered that 13 inmates at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center be released in December prior to Christmas in granting an injunction to the plaintiffs in the case.

The injunction prevents officials and probation supervisors in Rutherford County from holding people in jail for certain violations or only because they could not pay fees. The injunction also stated that anyone being held for those reasons should be freed.

In addition to freeing these prisoners, Sharp ordered PCC immediately to stop the practice of holding anyone in violation of the probation conditions solely for non-payment of fees.

Officials from the Sheriff’s Office have said previously that about one-fifth of the jail’s inmates are being held on charges from PCC. The jail has a maximum capacity of 958.

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Contact Scott Broden at 615-278-5158. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden.