Library offenders could go to jail

[Tab]

BAY CITY, Michigan (AP) -- Keeping library books too long could soon land some readers in jail.

Frustrated librarians want the worst offenders to face criminal charges and up to 90 days behind bars.

"We want to go after some of the people who owe us a lot of money," said Frederick J. Paffhausen, the library's system director. "We want to set an example."

Paffhausen, who took over as director in October, is asking the Bay County Library Board for permission to seek arrest warrants for offenders who ignore repeated notices.

The board plans to consider the crackdown next month.
More> http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/19/library.jail.ap/index.html

[Not_Giving_Up]

1. Ummm....

How many books are they missing that this is such a crisis? Good grief! How long do you have to be overdue before they lock you up for taking too long to read a book?

[BlueStatesForever]

2. Self-defeating costs

Put a wheel lock on their car or something instead.

[Arianrhod]

3. Prison is America's answer to everything.

The Republicans want one huge Gulag Archipelago where they can wall in anyone who they disagree with so that they don't have to think and don't have to face what's left of their conscience.

[UpInArms]

4. Hell of a "fine" for an overdue book

:sigh:

[mitchtv]

37. there comes a point when an overdue book

becomes a stolen book. Yanking ones driver's license would be an alternative to some, but not all.

[Philostopher]

5. There already are towns in Texas that can arrest you for overdue books.

It's not new -- I forget which city it was in Texas, I knew somebody who was from there who said if the fine reaches a certain point or the book is gone for a certain period of time, it's considered a misdemeanor theft and you can be arrested for it. People seldom do time, but it has been known to happen if it was a really egregious violation.

[ilovenicepeople]

32. Patriot Act article 215 sectionA

ALL misdemeanors are concidered TERRORISM

[pig.]

34. THATS FUNNY - i was just now reading that myself... n/t

[Philostopher]

38. Lovely!

So you could be jailed without recourse or contact with an attorney for keeping a library book too long.

What would they torture you to find out, if you kept 'Grapes Of Wrath' out for a month and six days, I wonder?

[berni_mccoy]

6. And with the three strike rule

If you have 3 books overdue at once, you'll end up serving 55 years in prison due to federal mandatory sentencing.

:cry:

[damntexdem]

7. And spank them on the hands with a plastic ruler, to boot.

Can't let literacy get out of hand, after all.

[Straight Shooter]

8. These "people who owe us a lot of money," are they taxpayers?

Shut up, Paffhausen.

[KitSileya]

9. Can't they just refuse to lend them more books?

Couldn't they just black-list the worst offenders, and refuse to let them borrow any more books before they settle their dues?

Come on, the prison population of the US is humongous as it is.

on edit: my Pi post! Apple pie......yum!

[sandnsea]

10. My library charges no late fees

They just want their books back. Been that way for years so it must be working. Jail over a library book. This is just too stupid.

[Psephos]

23. Amen n/t

[jobycom]

11. Goody. More laws, less justice. The American way.

Maybe this is how Bush will find more cannon fodder, um, soldiers. Your book is overdue, send you straight to Iraq. Or Iran or Canada or whoever the hell the filthy murdering dog decides to invade next.

[atommom]

12. I've worked in libraries, and I've also been guilty of having books

overdue myself. IMHO, it is not a criminal offense unless it's really egregrious. For example, one patron at a public library where I worked took out multiple library cards, checked out the 99 item maximum of CDs on each of them, and sold the CDs at a pawn shop. THAT was criminal. Ordinary absentmindedness is not.

[lil-petunia]

13. AND if you are an immigrant, they'll hold you in solitary

for two years, with no lawyer, and attack with with trained dogs, before they deport you.

[GinaMaria]

14. where am I, a Seinfeld episode?

Tropic of Cancer wasn't it?

[htuttle]

15. That's OFFICER Bookman to you, pal

What are you, some kind of punk who thinks he can keep library books as long as he likes?

[brentspeak]

16. A better way to deal with this problem

Libraries could have some sort of patron-credit-card-on-file system similar to what Blockbuster has. Of course, they would have to do a much better job with accurately and fairly charging tardy patrons than Blockbuster does with it's customers.

[grasswire]

17. $25,000 per year per inmate

...how much is that per night? About $68. That's the cost to keep someone in jail custody.

Overlooked, of course, is the fact that space for violent offenders is taken up by lazy readers.

Ya sure can buy a lot of library books with $25,000 in taxpayer money.

[truth2power]

20. Once you're in jail

you can borrow from the prison library...a free service, I assume.

At least they don't have to worry about you absconding with the books. :evilgrin:

[George_S]

18. "Kid, have you ever been to court?"

And I proceeded to tell him the story of the twenty-seven 8 x 10 colored glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one . . .

He stopped me right there and said, "Kid, I want you to go over and sit down on that bench that says 'Group W'."

And I walked over to the bench there, and there's... Group W is where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committin' your special crime.

There was all kinds of mean, nasty, ugly-lookin' people on the bench there . . . there was mother-rapers . . . father-stabbers . . . father-rapers! FATHER-RAPERS sittin' right there on the bench next to me! And they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible and crime fightin' guys were sittin' there on the bench, and the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one . . . the meanest father-raper of them all . . . was comin' over to me, and he was mean and ugly and nasty and horrible and all kinds of things, and he sat down next to me. He said, "Kid, what'd you get?"

I said, "I didn't get nothin'. I had to pay fifty dollars and pick up the garbage."

He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?" and I said, "Over due books"' . . . . And they all moved away from me on the bench there, with the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean, nasty things, till I said, "And creatin' a nuisance . . . " And they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench talkin' about crime, mother-stabbin', father-rapin', . . . all kinds of groovy things that we was talkin' about on the bench, and everything was fine.

[sherilocks]

25. Made me nostalgic

Sounds like a modern-day revival of the 60's movie and song, Alice's Restaurant, when Arlo Guthrie gets arrested for dumping, I think.

[havocmom]

19. Ken Lay still free on bond?

Now there's some values for ya.

[nolabels]

21. Do you think a little payback with some bad PR spin on librarians

These RW's take months and years to try and ladle it out if they don't hit on the first try. M. Moore first book laid down some wood with the help of librarians. This would be my guess for this veiled smear

[jmm]

22. I'd love to think that

our society was so great that could could use time and resources going after crimes like this.

I use to work in a college library and can understand the frustration. Professors are some of the worst offenders when it comes to overdue books. There were some that had hundreds of past due for over a year. Instead of jail there should be a smaller limit on the number of items people can check out at the same time.

[footinmouth]

24. Glad this is not New York

Tucked away in the back of the closet of my 27 year old's room I found a book that was due in 1983. Oopsies. Fortunately, we have the outdoor drop-off bins here and I'll be able to drive by after closing and do a dump and run.

I'll feel much safer knowing that these criminals are off the streets.

[NYC]

35. 40 years overdue.

A woman in my building died recently. When I went through her bookshelves, I found a book that is 40 years overdue.

[Jose Diablo]

26. Sure, scoff at those trying to maintain civil order

Today it is overdue library books. But what will be tomorrow, robbing banks?

You cannot be too lax on enforcing the rules of civilization. It is just this sort of lax attitudes toward law and order that has brought our once proud nation into disrepute among the more civilized nations of this world.

How can we hold our heads high among those around us in this world, when we cannot maintain enough order within our own borders in regards to the prompt and timely returning of library books?

This is nothing short of pure barbarism. Things like this are what brought the once mighty and proud nation of Rome down. They should 'throw the book at them'.

:)

[Southsideirish]

27. In our meager library - every book is needed. Its selfish to

keep them overdue.

[Piperay]

28. Glad I don't live there

I'm ashamed but I am very bad about returning my books on time. :spank: I guess I just love em so much I hate to bring em back. :shrug:

[Tangledog]

29. It's OK with me

Honestly, folks, nobody's sending you up for 20 years in Attica because Junior misplaced "Bridgette the Pirouetting Woodchuck" for a couple of weeks.

You bought any new hardcover books lately? How about DVDs? It's really not difficult at all to check out a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff on a regular old public library card. Since many library cards work in multiple municipalities, an adventuresome soul can easily rack up $1,000 in materials without attracting much attention.

More and more people "lose" stuff for a year or more, and ignore half a dozen warning messages, and there's plenty of other people whose rights I'll worry about first.

[kitkatrose]

30. Actually, I have.

Most libraries have a limit on how much you can check out at one time, and my system won't let you check out anything else until you've paid off your late fees. If everything's computerized (which I think most systems are), it shouldn't be that hard to track.

[Strawman]

31. Overdue books? Jail or Iraq? Take your pick son.

Nothing would shock me anymore.

[theHandpuppet]

33. Wouldn't it simply be cheaper...

... to hire someone to go to these folks houses, knock on doors and ask for the books back? Saves the cost of going to court, provides employment, and is probably a lot more effective in actually getting the books back -- unless punishment, rather than book retrieval, is really their thing.

Another option is for said fines to be added to the offending citizen's personal property tax bill when it comes due.

A third idea is to shame folks into returning their books by taking out a large ad in the local paper listing all those who have outstanding library notices.

I don't mean to make light of book theft, which is what this amounts to
(and so many libraries are already strapped) but it seems to me there are a LOT of options that don't include going to jail for overdue books.

[Columbia]

36. So much for no debtors prison

Rights eroded one by one...