Cash-Strapped States Resurrect "Debtors' Prisons" egads!

[ensho]

http://www.truth-out.org/punishing-poor-being-poor63949


Two reports published by NYU's Brennan Center for Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reveal a rising trend of patently unconstitutional practices in cash-strapped states, where a growing number of impoverished people are jailed for being unable to pay their legal fees - including charges for use of public defenders, a guaranteed right in the United States. The resurgence of these draconian "debtors' prisons" has been documented in at least 13 of the 15 states with the largest prison populations in the country, including California, Arizona, Michigan and Alabama.

"Incarcerating people simply because they cannot afford to pay their legal debts is not only unconstitutional but also has a devastating impact upon men and women whose only crime is that they are poor," said ACLU senior staff attorney Eric Balaban.

Many states view the fees as a method for helping to alleviate budget deficits. In New Orleans, Louisiana, legal fines comprise almost two-thirds of criminal courts' operating budgets. But the ACLU found in its report, "In for a Penny: The Rise of America's New Debtors' Prisons," that jailing individuals for failing to pay legal fees actually places the financial burden on the state, wasting taxpayer money and resources to keep those individuals in jail or on public welfare as they struggle to pay their overwhelming debts.

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the private prison Barons love it. makes them tap dance around their offices.

[nc4bo]

1. Mad as hell and don't know how long we can take it anymore..

I just posted my feelings over in LBN.

The more I see it, the more pissed off I get and no outlet for the rage.

I get the feeling no one in power will do anything about it either- just adds to the rage inside.

[fasttense]

2. This is just soooo stupid. It must be a Tea-bagger RepubliCON idea.

Debtor's Prison only works if you can inherit debt. That is if the parents and relatives of the person in jail have a legal obligation to pay the debt. Otherwise the relative will just let them rot in jail and the debt never gets paid off.

They are locking up someone so they can't get out to work and earn a living and pay off his debt and bills. It makes no sense unless his mother, father or other relatives are responsible for his debts and will work to pay it off.

You could also create workhouses so that the debtor in prison can actually work to pay off his debts.

It worked in the 1800's. It should work today. But they need to refine the law to either allow for the inheritance of debt or the development of workhouses.

Scrooge understood the need for workhouses and debtor's prison.

Welcome to the 1800s I guess that's where the Tea-Baggers want to take our country.

[Blue_Tires]

7. that doesn't matter to the private prison corporations

if the prison isn't at 100 percent capacity then it's losing money...Right now they just want live bodies, and don't care where they come from...

[Hannah Bell]

18. workhouses didn't "work" in the 1800s. they were festering holes of misery.

never thought i'd see people cheering on the return of WORKHOUSES at du.

for the record, my stepfather spent part of his childhood living at a similar institution, a poor farm.

it didn't "work". The new deal "worked".

[dajoki]

3. Its not only legal fees...

the credit card companies are using the system also.

K&R

[Solly Mack]

4. k/r

[DirkGently]

5. ... and we continue to skate blithely over huge Constitutional bright lines.

[billlll]

8. OP,,,,,,,why not in MSM?

This is a huge story.

Outrageous.

Will a bank put you in a prison it owns and runs after an arbitrator court it fully controls?

[Liberty Belle]

6. Makes money for the private prison industry.

What's next? Workhouses for the poor - a la Dickens - no doubt. They already jail the homeless for vagrancy. Terrible situation.

[Newest Reality]

9. This may only be surprising to

those who have not been watching this digression carefully over the years.

The facade is coming off. This is creeping every so slowly your way, and of course, that's uncomfortable. So, you recoil and may even deny what is rather easy to extrapolate if you have enough decent information. It can be depressing and appears to be moving towards the horrific in a step-by-step way.

Justice as we know it is not as profitable as injustice, especially as it is meted out to the impoverished and low-income amongst us -- growing throngs of everyday people that make it more difficult to deny. Look into the private prison industry, for example.

I get tired of re-iterating everything in detail and just encourage those who still think that knowledge is power to address these matters by researching it more and paying attention rather than absorbing corporately-owned media agitprop. If you choose to wait until it is right in your face, then you assure that potential.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

10. Two sets of laws: One for the Banksters and Corps, and one for regular folk.

It's more than injustice. It's treasonous.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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[kenny blankenship]

11. If this keeps up, I'll have to change my sig line.

It may be redundant, but apparently that won't stop them.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

12. Kicking

Your sig is perfectly apropos.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

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[malaise]

15. How else can these ReTHUGS

loot the states.

[Quantess]

16. This is bad news.

[woo me with science]

17. This is disturbing. nt