Charged a Fee for Getting Arrested, Whether Guilty or Not

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

WASHINGTON — Corey Statham had $46 in his pockets when he was arrested in Ramsey County, Minn., and charged with disorderly conduct. He was released two days later, and the charges were dismissed.

But the county kept $25 of Mr. Statham’s money as a “booking fee.” It returned the remaining $21 on a debit card subject to an array of fees. In the end, it cost Mr. Statham $7.25 to withdraw what was left of his money.

The Supreme Court will soon consider whether to hear Mr. Statham’s challenge to Ramsey County’s fund-raising efforts, which are part of a national trend to extract fees and fines from people who find themselves enmeshed in the criminal justice system.

Kentucky bills people held in its jails for the costs of incarcerating them, even if all charges are later dismissed. In Colorado, five towns raise more than 30 percent of their revenue from traffic tickets and fines. In Ferguson, Mo., “city officials have consistently set maximizing revenue as the priority for Ferguson’s law enforcement activity,” a Justice Department report found last year.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/charged-a-fee-for-getting-arrested-whether-guilty-or-not/ar-BBxzmo6?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=edgsp

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility! nt

[Ohioblue22]

2. How do you think trump's court will decide this.

[world wide wally]

7. Double the fees?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

3. K&R! The fees provide an incentive to arrest people for BS! n/t

[aggiesal]

18. Agreed ...

You can be harassed and fee'd to death, if you have a cop who doesn't like you.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

20. There's various kinds of government set-ups that provide bad incentives.

I tend to agree with another poster further down this thread about government tax cuts being partly responsible for these kinds of court/jail fees.

Noam Chomsky is far on the left, but even he talks with some empathy about how laws are written in regard to corporations, providing incentives for them to put profits above all else. It's basically illegal for corporate CEO's/managers to knowingly operate otherwise because of how laws were written to protect shareholders from managers who act otherwise.

I also don't understand why laws were written to encourage incorporation! It's harder for owners to be held legally responsible for various wrongdoings if it's a corporation. Private owners often incorporate to avoid costly lawsuits, as I understand it. Why?! Why are the laws written that way unless there's some people who want less direct oversight by owners on how businesses are managed?

[awoke_in_2003]

23. Read your last paragraph

with the assumption that the rich write the laws that legislatures pass. Then it makes sense.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

25. I guess so.

The owners want more money with less risk to themselves, and less managerial oversight (work) from themselves.

[awoke_in_2003]

26. It is the only thing that does make sense in this country. nt

[Buckeye_Democrat]

29. I think many of those worms avoid public scrutiny too.

Although that's surely a smarter strategy than being more in the public eye while making money off money.

[aggiesal]

40. When this country first allowed corporations to exist, ...

laws were written so that they could only exist for up to 40 years.
At 40 years, by law, they were supposed to dissolve.

Corporations are people too!!! Remember that?
But they never die and no corporation ever goes to jail.

The law should be written that Corporations fiduciary responsibility
are to 3 entities:
1) Their Shareholders - for obvious reasons.
2) Their workers - Manufacture product to make profit.
3) Their community - Pay the taxes to build the infrastructure to get product to market,
i.e roads, communications infrastructure, police protection, fire protection, ...

Unfortunately, only 1 is implemented. They could care less about 2 or 3.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

42. Agree. I'm curious about their history in this country.

I didn't know about an initial 40 year law.

I know that my father, who grew up during the Great Depression, used to work for very large privately-owned companies after WW2 around this area. Now it's about impossible to find companies that large unless they're incorporated!

Dad was a very hard worker, and the owners rewarded him for his efforts with pay increases and more responsibility over time.

With pretty much every company being a corporation now, the people with the most vested interest in the companies (the owners) don't seem to observe the operations directly... other than what can be learned from financial reports. From what I've observed over the years, the CEO's/managers tend to be more interested in their own well-being than the health of the companies. That makes sense to me given human nature. It's a bit like a wealthy celebrity putting their faith in someone else to manage all of their money... only to find out later that the money was squandered away despite previous reports to the contrary.

[fleabiscuit]

4. KICK

[msongs]

5. gotta keep the union fully employed and highly paid somehow nt

[Ilsa]

6. Another way to keep people away from voting if

they are behind on paying bogus fees and they fear being picked up at their voting precinct. What a scam.

[panader0]

8. I had to do a few days once.

The "mattress" that was once two inches thick had been compressed to one inch.
The food was nearly all inedible. My cell mates were all thieves. (Three different
mates in three days) For these accommodations they charged me $72 a day.
On top of my other fines and fees.. That was many years ago. It's more expensive now.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

9. Absolutely outrageous!

nt

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Vulture Justice Growth Engine

All the providers of public services have their hands out

[Johnny2X2X]

11. Yup

Been through this. They hit you with so many fees for anything to do with the courts that they know you can't pay so they can violate you for not paying your probation. It's a racket and they make a fortune off from inmates. They charge you $8 for shampoo that costs 50 cents, $3 a minute for phone calls. Deodorant can cost $9.

Trump and his cable are handing over all of our prisons to giant corporations who will charge even more as they help write stricter laws to ensure more victims. It's sick and as long as this justice system stands we are not a free country.

[mountain grammy]

12. Have helped friends through this bullshit

$1000's for a petty offense. Outrageous expenses. American justice is exceptionally cruel.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

14. Cruelty Capitalism.

this is all so depressing.

[mountain grammy]

31. Isn't it though.

I feel like that penguin who keeps face planting in the mud.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

34. Good metaphor.

So do I, only I'm not as cute.

[KamaAina]

13. And Ramsey County is St. Paul and environs

not Lake Wobegon or someplace else you might expect this $#*! to go on.

[Dustlawyer]

15. This is another outside the box way to extract the cost of government from the working class

instead of using taxes. City, state, and federal government is strapped for cash because rich people do not pay their share of already reduced taxes. Most of them cheat on their taxes and get away with it because the IRS is so cash strapped they cannot audit very many cheats. The IRS will not audit big corporations because it costs too much resources.

I blame the media, our corrupt politicians, and the plutocrats who own the media and the politicians. The Koch Libertarian dream is almost upon us. This is what they want and it appears they are going to get it!

This is another example of us wanting to fight the symptoms of the corruption caused by the money in our politicians. By allowing legal bribes in the form of campaign contributions, we allow the wealthy to control our government. Since they make the rules they do not pay much in the way of taxes. The government still needs money to run so they get creative in finding ways for the poor and middle class to pay for it all.

The charges for being arrested and jailed while innocent (or even guilty) are wrong. Ferguson showed how it kept their citizens in poverty and kept adding to their charges and fines when they could not pay. That probably kept many from getting and keeping a job with which to pay the charges/fines. The corrupt politicians still need money for their budgets since they promised their Donors they will give them sweet tax cuts and outrageous no bid contracts

Most of our country's problems are caused by our campaign finance system, its time we all joined together to attack the root problem!!!

[the_sly_pig]

37. Exactly. nt

[SteelSmasher]

16. Luxury

As if jail was a hotel. This isn't really different from forcing someone to "buy" something at gunpoint.

[gulliver]

17. If Hillary were President Elect...

...this sort of crap would be on the way out. Republicans have created this incredibly corrupt system based on "who pays," the Republican excuse for about half of everything wrong they do.

So, yeah. The guy will pay a booking fee. And if his family wants to give him money to use in jail, they'll pay an account reload fee. If they want to talk with him on the phone, they'll pay out the nose for prison phone system minutes.

If he ends up convicted, some states will make him pay for his "probation costs," essentially they will bill the guy (fresh out of jail) to pay for the costs of the probation system. They will also make him pay "restitution" to the state. So the guy will have thousands in debt for victimless crimes and payable to the state coffers.

Elections have consequences. We could have had Hillary.

[hughee99]

19. Yes! This occurred in a heavily blue area of a blue

State, run by a Dem governor... Clearly, the republicans are the problem, and surely Hillary would have fixed it.

[gulliver]

22. There may seem to be some irony in that idea for you.

There really isn't for me. That's why I voted for Clinton, not because she would fix everything but because I wanted to keep going in the right direction. We lost so much when we failed to get her elected.

[hughee99]

30. I felt Clinton was the right person for the job as well,

But there seems to be a growing trend to explain all problems as "because republicans" even in places where the republicans may have little influence or control. I don't believe we have any chance to fix these issues if we aren't honest with ourselves, or if we suggest that simply having a Dem president will fix them.

[AngryAmish]

21. If they call it a tax then the Supreme Court will say it is OK.

[localroger]

24. Due Process, motherfuckers. /nt

[spin]

27. Therefore in Ramsey County, Minn arresting people can be a ...

money making proposition.

Unfortunately this is probably not the only place in our nation where this is true.

[no_hypocrisy]

28. This will stop when more people sue for false arrest.

Or Sen. Al Franken gets a ticket.

[tclambert]

32. A police department prioritizing generating revenues? How is that not racketeering?

[the_sly_pig]

33. I don't disagree with the premise of the article...

But I also don't disagree with charging a booking fee. Charges dismissed happen all the time for a variety of reasons.

The assertion that cops arrest people for a $25 booking fee I feel is unrealistic. In my experience the vast majority of those disturbing the peace are not arrested. Disorderly arrests are reserved for those that make additional effort to be uncooperative or threaten the complainant.

Law enforcement does include running traffic and enforcing traffic law of which there is often a financial penalty.

The reason the Supreme Court will hear a case involving a $25 booking fee is an entirely different matter...

-tsp

[hfojvt]

35. I did have to laugh at that line

"enmeshed in the criminal justice system".

When in all probability there was a good reason to arrest him, but it somehow was not worth the trouble to press charges.

Not sure why not though, since they often write tickets and charge substantial fees to people. Which people usually pay because the alternative would be to spend even more money on lawyer's fees.

Cost me $370 to drive to the most liberal stinking city in Kansas. A city I once would have loved. Parked my car in the shade and spent half an hour looking for the County Democratic Headquarters. Came back to my car to find a cop waiting there.

Apparently the United States of America is not what I thought it was.

Doubtless though, my story is not as important as this obnoxious jerk's $35.

[the_sly_pig]

36. In my state...

citizens can contest traffic and parking fines without hiring a lawyer. It does take time off work though. I've had ticket fines reduced but not eliminated.

The big cities have meter monitors that enforce parking laws. Most likely they follow a set of assigned patterns or routes. As with many situations, sometimes its being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not excusing, just sayin....

[hfojvt]

38. well this was not a parking fine

Apparently I violated some stupid law.

Apparently in America a person is expected to check in with the City Hall to make sure there are no stupid laws on the books that somebody might violate without knowing that said stupid law even existed.

No question that I violated the law, so what was my argument supposed to be in court? That it is unreasonable to expect me to know about laws for cities where I don't live? Well what do they care about reason when they have the power?

[MrScorpio]

39. It's all a racket, it's always been a racket

Which is why I'm more wary of the police than I am of criminals.

Who watches the watchers?

[Angry Dragon]

41. theft by swindle