I want Change.org members to read about my brother's experience, and other people's experience, with probation officers. Since my brother was releasted from the DOC last December, his probation officer has had him arrested and thrown in jail twice all over a misunderstanding that could have been resolved just by talking about it and trying to work out any issues. Instead, his probation officer, Mr. Tom Quinn, decided to have my brother arrested and claimed it was a "probation violation" when in fact it was not. Why did he do this? Simple, Mr. Quinn dislikes my brother and does not want to deal with or try to help him so his way of dealing with him is to throw him in jail when he feels like it. Another incident that happened in June was when Mr. Quinn came to the house with two officers to see my brother. One of the officers is a detective in the major crimes unit in Fairfax County. She took down my brothers license plate number and discovered the vehicle had not been registered with the State Police. Instead of informing the State Police or Mr. Quinn of this, she decided to take matters in her own hands and had a swat team of cops show up at the house a few days later and ransacked my house for hours all over a vehicle registration. If that cop had just taken a few minutes to ask my brother why the vehicle was not registered, he would have told her he did not know it had to be because no one bothered to inform him. The next day, my brother went to the State Police barracks and registered the vehicle. Three weeks later that same cop issued an arrest warrant and had my brother thrown in jail for a vehicle that is already registered claiming he failed to register the vehicle and falsified information. Why did she do this? My guess is to get back at my brother (and she abused her authority as a police officer to settle her own personal grudge she has against him) because he contacted the Internal Affairs Department and complained about her. The day we went to court, the public defender that was helping us said the D.A. was offering my brother a deal. They wanted him to plead quilty (to something he did not do) in exchange for a suspended 30-day jail time. Why did the D.A.'s office make such an offer? It's because their witness (the State Police) was a "no show" and they were affraid they would not get a continuance or the judge would null process or dismiss the case and that would blow any chance they would get to getting a conviction on my brother's record (so the next time his is arrested it would be a felony), and all the time and effort they put into prosecuting someone whose vehicle is already registered. The State Police are satisfied that they have all my brother's information and everything is registered, but obviously this is not good enough for the Fairfax County Police or D.A.'s office since they have nothing else better to do with their time except for arresting and prosecuting someone whose vehicle is already registered with the State Police. Not to mention wasting court's time, resources, and tax payers money in pursuing this petty matter. I sent a complaint email to the VA Parole Board and so far have not seen anything being done about my complaints. If you or you know someone on probation living in Virginia and you are having similiar problems, please sign the petition and also send a compliant email to the VA Parole Board at webmaster@vadoc.virginia.gov or docmail@vadoc.virginia.gov. If you live in another state, do a search for the Parole Board in that state and send a complaint email. Perhaps if enough people complain, we can stop these probation officers from abusing their authority, wasting court's time, resources, and tax payers money housing these probationers in jail for petty matters. Since my brother's release last December, he has stayed out of trouble, has a part-time job, keeps to himself and does not bother anyone, he is not out reoffending or committing additional crimes and has done everything his probation officer has asked him to do. Just like others out on probation who have paid their debt to society, my brother just wants to move on with his life and become a productive member of the community. Thank you for taking the time to read my story. Wishing you and your families a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Sincerely,

Alison Jacobs