If You Thought You Couldn't Go To Jail For Debt Anymore — You're Wrong

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/if-you-thought-you-couldnt-go-to-prison-for-debt-anymore--youre-wrong-2014-2


Jack Dawley and his family

Debtors' prisons sound like ancient history, right? Unfortunately, they're all too common across the United States.

In spite of the Constitution, case law, and common sense, low-income people are routinely jailed in places as far-flung as Georgia and Washington State simply because they cannot afford to pay their court fines.

Let's define court fines, because it's kind of shocking. "Court fines" could be as little as a couple hundred bucks because someone was pulled over while driving with an expired license. If you've just been laid off and have kids to feed, it might be hard to find a couple hundred extra bucks in your budget. Well, that can send you to lock up.

Not only does it cost the community quite a bit to jail someone (usually way in excess of the fine), but locking people up can trap them in the vicious cycle of poverty, debt, and incarceration that typifies the modern day debtors' prison. Individuals incarcerated because they can't pay minor court fines have lost their jobs, been evicted from their housing, suffered serious declines in their health, and faced family crises.



Read more: https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/still-locking-people-being-poor-really-its-2014#ixzz2seUo1MBj

[missingthebigdog]

1. It is more than just court fines

At least in Arkansas, you can still be jailed for failing to pay debts you owe to others. Here's how it works:

The creditor sues you and gets a judgment against you. The judge orders you to pay the creditor.
When you do not pay, the creditor files a motion for contempt- you are in violation of a court order.
The Court can then sentence you for contempt of court. You aren't being punished for owing the money, but for violating the court order. . . .

Now, the law says that the Court has to find that you WILLFULLY disobeyed the Court's order. That is supposed to mean that if you can show that you can't pay, you can't be held in contempt. In reality, unless you can afford a lawyer to represent you ( in which case you can probably afford to pay the judgment), you risk jail for being poor.

[dotymed]

10. Tennessee is the same except

people are charged around $200 a day (to pay) for their jail time.

Of course, it creates the cycle. Contempt of court when you cannot afford to pay (hell, you could get a nice hotel room and dinner for the price they assess you).
Then, they place you on (for profit, "CCI&quot probation for a year. If you fail to pay your weekly probation fees and attend weekly appointments (piss tests) then you are "violated", charged with contempt....and so it goes.

[SCantiGOP]

11. same way child support works

No one can be put in jail for failure to pay child support. Rather, they are put in jail for contempt for not following the court's order to pay the support. Technically, it is not debtor's prison because you are in jail voluntarily, since paying the amount covered by the order removes the contempt and you are released.
I'm not in any way defending deadbeats who refuse to pay to support their children, but proof of inability to pay, in this case or the one referenced above, should prevent someone from being locked up.

[BGFisher200]

2. Send me to Australia,

That is what England used to do with debtors.
With all this snow here I would welcome the banishment LOL

[arcane1]

3. I was sentenced to 10 days in jail for not paying a speeding ticket on time, in 1997 Virginia

Luckily I only had to serve 5 days due to overcrowding. I always thought it was a stupid punishment, since the cost of keeping me locked up surely exceeded the cost of the ticket.

[packman]

4. Read a book about Debtors Prison in the Netherlands

quite a time ago, and the Dutch had a unique approach. The debtor was chained to a pump in a flooded cellar and paid a pittance to pump out the flooded room. If he did not work at the pump, he drowned. Also, a few decades ago any black or any indigent traveling going thru a town were arrested for being unemployed, sent to a work camp or bought for work chains in the mines and factories. Debtor's prison it seems, never goes away.

[tblue]

8. This hideous.

When was that?

[packman]

19. I believe

The book was called THE COFFEE TRADER and it was about the Dutch trading in coffee in the 1600'S making money and losing fortunes.

[SCantiGOP]

12. the crime was called vagrancy

And it was very common in the US not that long ago. If you had no money on you it could lead to an arrest and jail. As The Band sang:

I just spent 60 days in the jailhouse
For the crime of having no dough.
Now here I am back out on the street
For the crime of having nowhere to go.

[ReRe]

5. It wouldn't surprise me if...

... someday soon they start throwing college graduates in jail because they can't find a job and repay their exorbitant college debt.

[truedelphi]

24. And meanwhile, the people hired by Sallie Mae, the

Private agency in charge of student loans, are all from third world nations.

How can Americans pay what they owe when even the jobs concerning the collections of those monies goes to foreigners?

[ReRe]

25. Beats the fuck out of me

I have a horrible headache. It's called life in disaster capitalism's NEW WORLD ORDER.

[closeupready]

6. Does bankruptcy vacate these fines?

Either Chapter 7 or 13?

[kimbutgar]

7. No republicans did away with that in 2005 with their bankruptcy act

Only corporations can do away with debt and only high net worth individuals. They made it so hard for people to declare bankruptcy. A gift to the credit card agencies from the republican controlled house, senate and white house. That's why medical debt became a problem.

[closeupready]

9. Then when we win back the House, we need to repeal that piece of shit law.

Further, I know both Obama and Biden campaigned about medical debt relief previously, and I'd like them make strides towards achieving that.

[totodeinhere]

18. As long as the GOP retains the ability to filibuster in the Senate it probably won't happen

regardless of whether we retake the House or not.

[SCantiGOP]

13. not quite right, kimbutgar

My wife is an attorney who specializes in bankruptcy. Almost all of her clientele are low income, and the majority are forced into it through medical bills or the effects of divorce. What the GOP tightened up on was forcing people who had any assets into plans where they paid at least part of their debts rather than having all of them expunged.

[kimbutgar]

15. You are correct but they made it more difficult for the average person and easier for the rich

To declare bankruptcy. And students can longer discharge student loan debt. A whole generation of our college students will be debt slaves for most of their lives not being able to buy homes.

[SCantiGOP]

21. agreed, kimbutgar

I did further skew the field against low income folks. And, student death is I believe impossible to get rid of.

[totodeinhere]

17. It wasn't just Republicans. 19 Senate Democrats voted for it including Harry Reid and

Joe Biden. To his credit then Senator Obama voted against it. The bill also got Democratic support in the House.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00044

[xchrom]

20. +1

[summerschild]

23. Notice how they got the new bankruptcy laws in place (also can no longer

remove your primary dwelling from risk) in time for the banks and loan companies to pounce when the market crashed.

Some days I wonder why any of us try.

[panader0]

14. About 15 years ago I had to spend two days in the Cochise County Zoo (jail)

They charged me $75.00 a day for my accomodations, on top of fees and fines.

[rickyhall]

16. The Fed

has taken my tax refunds for over 30 years for 4 semesters of student loan debt. No bankruptcy available but no jail time either. I am told I can get it stopped before I retire, hopefully. I figure principal paid but owe $20k interest.

Ain't life in America grand?

[bvar22]

22. Land of the Free, Home of the Brave!

We are plunging headlong into another Gilded Age.

We need to give the RICH more Tax Cuts so they will create more jobs for us,
and "incentivize" corporations to create more jobs too!