How Minor Probation Violations Can Lead to Major Jail Time
PHILADELPHIA—In the early-morning hours one day last August, 25-year-old Giovanni Guzman-Vegas closed up his family’s bar and went to pick up his seven-months-pregnant girlfriend from a babysitting gig. There, he said he found her upset: A man in the house, who’d accompanied the child’s mother home, had groped her while she was asleep on a couch.
A fight quickly ensued, with Guzman-Vegas punching the man and breaking his jaw, and his adversary pulling a gun. Only one of them called police: Guzman-Vegas was reported for an alleged assault.
Guzman-Vegas would go on to join Philadelphia’s notoriously overcrowded lockup, without the option of pretrial release. He fit the profile of many of the city’s detainees: He wasn’t jailed because his alleged offense was overly severe, or because a judge said he was a public-safety threat. Rather, it was solely because the new charge violated the terms of his probation. His detention triggered, Guzman-Vegas was held for months without bail
