Groups erase some probation debt in Mississippi, Florida

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A nonprofit group and a debtors’ union have bought and erased private probation debt for about 20,500 people in Mississippi and Florida. Letters telling people about the news also criticized “abusive debt collectors.” The nonprofit Rolling Jubilee Fund said Friday that it worked with the Debt Collective to buy nearly $3.3 million of private probation debt on the secondary debt market for just under $98,000. The groups forgave all of the debt. The Debt Collective’s press secretary, Braxton Brewington, says the average individual debt erased was $159. Most of the forgiven debt was for people in Mississippi.