Cash-Strapped States Resurrect "Debtors' Prisons"

Wednesday 06 October 2010

by: Nadia Prupis, t r u t h o u t | Report

Cash-Strapped States Resurrect "Debtors' Prisons"
(Photo: Paula Bailey; Edited: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t)

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.

Moreover, these and other penalties creates obstacles for those re-entering society after completing their criminal sentence; the Brennan Center report, "Criminal Justice Debt: A Barrier to Reentry," notes that eight of the 15 states studied suspend driving privileges of individuals who miss debt payments, while seven states require them to complete their full payments before regaining eligibility to vote. Such unnecessary setbacks often pave the way for those on probation to return to jail through no fault of their own.

"We are undermining the integrity of our criminal justice system and creating a two-tiered system of justice in which the poorest among us are punished more harshly than those with means, at a great cost to taxpayers," said ACLU deputy legal director Vanita Gupta.

Imprisoning probationers for failing to pay court debts was found unconstitutional in 1980, when Georgia resident Danny Bearden was sent to prison for two years when he could not pay $550 in legal fees, despite his efforts. In Bearden v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that such practices violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment - but states throughout the country have begun openly disregarding these principles in their efforts to balance their budgets.

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The ACLU report highlights a few exemplary cases. Gregory White, a homeless man in Louisiana, was arrested for stealing $39 worth of food from a grocery store and assigned $339 in legal fees; when he was jailed for being unable to pay, White spent 198 days in jail at a cost of $35,000 to the city.

Georgia resident Ora Lee Hurley owed $705 in fines from a 1990 drug possession conviction and remained in jail for eight months for failing to pay.

Kawana Young, a 25-year-old single mother in Michigan, was told after the fact that her community service hours would not satisfy her debts because she had volunteered with a nonprofit organization. Young has since been jailed five times for being unable to pay her fees.

And Percy Dear, a New Orleans resident who suffers from epilepsy, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was arrested for begging in 2007. After pleading guilty, Dear was sentenced with either paying an immediate fine of $200 or spending 20 days in jail. Dear was unable to pay his fine at once and was incarcerated. These particular "fine or time" sentences are a glaring example of methods that plainly punish indigent cases while allowing wealthy individuals to go free on the same charges.

Judge Calvin Johnson, who served for 17 years in the Criminal District Court or Orleans Parish, said that regularly sentencing defendants in a "fine or time" method could have cost the city more than it collected. "30 days or $100 - that was something I heard every day," said Johnson in the ACLU report. "Now, how can you describe a system where the city pays $23 a day to the Sheriff to house someone in jail for 30 days to collect $100 as anything other than crazy?"

"People are emerging from the criminal justice process with significant debts that they cannot hope to repay," said Brennan Center Deputy Director Rebekah Diller. "As a result, these fees are creating new paths back to prison for those unable to pay."

Former Montgomery County, Ohio, public defender Glen H. Dewar is profiled in the ACLU report for his efforts in eliminating the state's debtors' prisons. Dewar stated in the report, "My estimate is that 20 to 25 percent of all local incarcerations statewide are for fines and costs, while about 50 percent of arrests are for fines and costs ... [until 2000], none of the persons arrested for nonpayment of fines and costs appeared on any court docket. Nor were they ever scheduled to appear at any particular time before any particular judge or magistrate." Before county jail records were computerized, Dewar said, "the scope of the problem, in terms of both numbers of arrests and days in jail, remained hidden ... the county also expanded jail space at a cost of millions, unaware of the fact that it was not for criminals but debtors."

As noted in the Brennan Center report, several states have also started to utilize practices that violate the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees defendants a right to counsel. Florida, North Carolina and Virginia have all implemented mandatory defender fees and provide no opportunity to waive them for indigent cases.

According to the report, "defender fees often discourage individuals from exercising their constitutional right to an attorney - leading to wrongful convictions, over-incarceration and significant burdens on the operation of courts. In Michigan, for example, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association found that the threat of paying the full cost of assigned counsel resulted in misdemeanor defendants systematically waiving their right to counsel - at a rate of 95 percent in one county." In Virginia, defendants often face up to $1,235 per count for some felonies.

The Brennan Center recommends that states eliminate public defender fees and offer community service programs that build job skills, among other state and local policy reforms; the ACLU similarly recommends that a judicial assessment of a convicted defendant's ability to pay fines must be comprehensive.

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Comments

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Just one more example of our

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 15:41 — Anonymous (not verified)

Just one more example of our dead democracy.

we're well on our way to

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 17:44 — Anonymous (not verified)

we're well on our way to becoming a libertarian paradise, just like somalia.

Comma's in the wrong place.

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 17:46 — Anonymous (not verified)

Comma's in the wrong place. Should be $35,000 not $3,5000

This is outrageous... and it

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 17:51 — RoughAcres (not verified)

This is outrageous... and it isn't confined to one political party; these are both Democratic and Republican states!

This war on the poor and less fortunate must stop before we tear our country asunder.

First the poor then the rest

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 18:07 — Anonymous (not verified)

First the poor then the rest of us. When do we say enough and fight back. A great read on our prison system is Slavery by Another Name.

A low-income law clinic

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 18:32 — JadeQueen (not verified)

A low-income law clinic charged my friend $35 to tell her they would not help her. With large, wired-in firms writing laws to disadvantage little people wanting to start businesses, it's a mess. In some neighborhoods, we all buy from street vendors even if we know they are not inspected. These people work hard and are feeding their families and us. They care about us and listen to our stories. It's a luxury to come above ground. Many will make it above before they are slapped in prisons. It works similarly in developing nations

For decades the "hanging

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 18:42 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

For decades the "hanging judges" and the "tough on crime courts" have unconstitutionally denied "own recognizance" release and/or reasonable bail to indigent defendents, intentionally exacting bail that many if not most low-income defendants can't possibly come with, thus keeping those defendants incarcerated in county jails without speedy trials in violation of the Sixth Amendment, and playing on their weakness(es) at being incarcerated so long in country jails in order to wear them down and get them to plea "bargain" for prison sentences; that, though they are lower than the maximum penalty for crimes, still unnecessarily imprison non-violent offenders, in many cases where they should have been given "credit for time served" in the county jail(s) because of weak cases that likely would not have obtained guilty verdicts by juries. Thus, many defendants are ending up in prison on cases that should have been dismissed, so the state and federal governments can profit off of the imprisonment of questionable inmates at greater and greater numbers.

There is also a trend today to turn regular, civil debt cases not associated (yet) with court fees, costs and fines into criminal cases, and sending debtors to "debtors prison", by debt holders sending debt cases to collection agencies who eventually take the matters to court if they can't browbeat people into somehow paying when they can't pay. Then the collection agencies get court orders for debtors to appear in court, either claim they had the debtors legally served when they did not; or, because "everyone knows (or believes, now) that people can't be thrown in prison anymore for debts", the debtors ignore the orders to appear thinking that "there's nothing the courts can do" but give judgments to debt holders which cannot be collected because the debtors are impoverished and/or their incomes are not garnishable. Then, when the debtors fail to appear in court, the judges issues a criminal warrant for their arrest, picks them up, incarcerates them, gives them harsh sentences for failing to appear in court, and attempts to exact further and further money out of even more, by then, impoverished defendants.

This is all very tricky, and all very unconstitutional, but the criminal "justice" system intentionally turn debtors into criminals, or greater criminals, in order to increase the debtors debt load through fees, costs and fines, which they seek to exact out of the debtors any way they can, including prison-industry labor while incarcerated, either for no wages or a few cents per hour, just enough to buy the toiletry items, etc., that the prisons no longer provide. It's a sick game to criminalize as many people as they can and exact revenue out of them, which is "illegal servitude" better known as enslavement; and this includes the enslavement of more and more white Americans as well. It's also a trend to take away all of our freedoms and turn all of us into slaves who the state allegedly "owns". This sick, unconstitutional, freedom-and-liberty-destroying evil has got to be stopped; or, as Thomas Jefferson warned:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency (as we have), first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

We see all of this of which Jefferson spoke, coming true right now. The question is, what are We, the People going to do about it? Anything? Or are we going to allow ourselves to be enslaved?

The "authorities" want to

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 20:23 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

The "authorities" want to take away everything we have for themselves, and they want to turn all or most of us into alleged "useless eaters" so they can create "justification(s)" for imprisoning and exterminating us all. This is the horrific reality that is beginning to unfold right before your very eyes that most of you refuse to believe; but it IS happening; and, if We, the People don't prevent it, we are soon going to see a mass-extermination right here in the U.S. that will make the Third Reich Nazi Germany exterminations look like a walk in the park by comparison.

Actually, in order to

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 20:36 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

Actually, in order to correct myself, that's "INDENTURED (not 'illegal') servitude"; but it is still all illegal nevertheless, having been completely outlawed in the U.S. by the Fourteen Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. But, next, the U.S. government, like they claim about the Posse Comitatus Act and other laws that are constitutional, will probably claim that most peoples' interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment is allegedly a "myth". These people are the ultimate criminals which have to be stopped by We, the People!

This must be part of the

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 20:50 — rob (not verified)

This must be part of the "class warfare", Warren Buffet announced, when he said we are in class warfare and his class declared, and his class is winning it! Let's prove him wrong about who is winning it!

Like they have long been

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 21:00 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

Like they have long been doing, the globalist, elitist oligarchy is exacting out of the People what it intentionally caused, like the bank and mortgage implosion(s). But now they are doing it as never before, making us pay for their level-of-criminality-that-has-never-been-seen-before-in-the-entire-history-of-the-world, to the tune of trillions of dollars, having sunk, actually destroyed, the U.S. into a kazillion-dollar debt that it can NEVER dig its way out of. It is all being done intentionally in order to convince us of the HUGE LIE that we supposedly "have to" give up U.S. sovereignty, independence and freedom(s) in order to join world government, and that doing so is our "only hope". And then, watch, when we fall for it and completely accept it, we will very quickly come to behold world-wide enslavement and no True Liberty(ies) whatsoever!

Wake up, people, and stop all of this madness before it's too late!

Q: First the poor then the

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 21:15 — jahf (not verified)

Q: First the poor then the rest of us. When do we say enough and fight back.

A: When it's "the rest of us." Perhaps not even then. Enlightenment is not guaranteed, not even on pain of suffering or death.

So true, "JahF(or is it four

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 21:38 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

So true, "JahF(or is it four initials?)"!

Right-on to you, too, Rob!

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 21:39 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

...And to all of the other

Wed, 10/06/2010 - 21:44 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

...And to all of the other right-on commenters as well!

Help!

Thu, 10/07/2010 - 05:05 — Anonymous (not verified)

This will of course set the

Thu, 10/07/2010 - 08:55 — George Green (not verified)

This will of course set the stage for private prison systems who will need bodies to fill cells to make money and grow their business. Privatization is popular among some of our fellow citizens mainly, in my opinion, because they have not thought the thing thru. Folks who don't like paying taxes to the government think that privatization will bring lower taxes but fail to see that public money will be paid to the private prison to house and feed the prisoners setting up a second tier of expense to the taxpayer. You don't get something for nothing. This will result in higher costs to taxpayers and allow for a breech to open in our constitutional system that will certainly lead not to greater democracy but to its opposite.

1st they came for the

Thu, 10/07/2010 - 11:58 — Kevin Schmidt (not verified)

1st they came for the deadbeats...

Those heartless judges who enforce unconstitutional laws don't belong behind the bench, they belong behind bars. That also goes for the equally heartless state legislatures who enact unconstitutional debtor prison laws.

ACLU, why aren't you doing a better job at defending these people and getting debtor prison laws declared unconstitutional in federal courts?

This is unConstitutional and

Thu, 10/07/2010 - 12:17 — tangenjill (not verified)

This is unConstitutional and unjust...right out of Dickens or Dreiser. Don't let anyone make you a slave. Follow the money. The people united will never be defeated. Where are the courageous muckrakers? Shopping per Bush's request? Wake up!

Historically, there are

Thu, 10/07/2010 - 12:18 — FBuckley (not verified)

Historically, there are precedents that exemplify the need to stop the open criminality of states, counties and cities. The poor, as I am one, are openly discriminated in all sectors of our society. The disabled and infirm are equally transgressed. The despicable individuals that do these legal actions hide behind corrupt laws, courts, judges, jailors, guard’s unions and a delusional public fed by the crap that spews from the mouths of the venomous elite. The wealthy or those of means have at their beckon the lawyers that for exorbitant fees shield most from these potential hazards of society.

Usually, they are completely insulated through a myriad of shell corporations, trusts and paper entities that are fathomless.

If a Free Roman Citizen was falsely jailed, those that accused or placed him/her in prison were executed.  Were we to have these laws reinstituted, it is only a start. The problem is the despots who walk around in government, intelligence agencies, military,
banking and financial, and energy industries that think waterboarding anyone 183 times in a month or 1830 times in a month works.  And it’s okay.  Even if that person is innocent.  99 out of a 100 times.  These people exist in all walks of life and there are no safeguards for the onslaught against the poor.  The Poor have and will always be the scapegoats of their hostility and disdain.  Should Laws be enacted to make exacting retribution from these stalwarts of justice, they would rebel.  Thus, there is a problem with the Constitution, Civil Rights, Magna Carta and any other guarantee of ALL peoples’ inalienable rights.  Stop them?  Why stop them.  They create more misery, injustice and tragedy to justify their existence than 100 of their fellow citizens.  The Lawyers, Legislators, Judges, Guards, Jailors and any other piece of trash involed in Prisons-for-Profit.  They are the Exxon/Mobil, BP and secret-torture centers of the incarceration community.  It’s just business.  Like slavery.  Just business.  Like prostitution.  Just business.  Like illegal drugs.  Just business.  Like Prisons-for-Profit.  Just business.  The business of corruption.  And it took over in 1963 with what Richard Nixon’s characterization of the Warren Commission “as the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people in history…”  Yeah, why investigate someone’s death who cared about inequity, Civil Rights, the Poor or plain injustice of our people?

And it is a continuing tragedy of not just our country, but many others.  And there has been no stopping it effectively.  But, there will be a stop to it if the military uses its prerogative to remove the corrupt.  And our military are really the noble poor who give it their all to be of service, with their lives if need be.  There are those in military service who remember where they came from, and what they are fighting for.  And it ain’t for injustice.  Then there are those who sell out.  And then there are those that mouth the tyranny and despotism of sellout as the answer.

We need a "dumb-ass" prison

Thu, 10/07/2010 - 17:29 — Anonymous (not verified)

We need a "dumb-ass" prison for politicians who don't pay attention to the needs of the people! Lock them up - no bail, just community service!!!

Minor point to correct: one

Thu, 10/07/2010 - 23:17 — Dana (not verified)

Minor point to correct: one of the commenters here said the amendment banning slavery and involuntary servitude was the Fourteenth when actually it is the Thirteenth. (I have never understood why we have a draft when by definition that constitutes "involuntary servitude." Not that this debtor's prison business is any better.)

I stand duly corrected,

Fri, 10/08/2010 - 02:17 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

I stand duly corrected, Dana:

Actually, in order to correct myself, that's "INDENTURED (not 'illegal') servitude"; but it is still all illegal nevertheless, having been completely outlawed in the U.S. by the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. But, next, the U.S. government, like they claim about the Posse Comitatus Act and other laws that are constitutional, will probably claim that most peoples' interpretation of the Thirteenth Amendment, as well as other humane, constitutional laws, is allegedly a "myth". These people are the ultimate, psychopathic criminals which have to be stopped by We, the People! THEY are the ones who "hate us for our freedoms"; in fact, they can't stand ANY people living Truly Free...

...We in the U.S. are being

Fri, 10/08/2010 - 02:18 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

...We in the U.S. are being heavily "psyop-ed" as never before, and what is next is the addition of the increasing use of violence against the American people themselves that is part and parcel of psyops, because people who want to be Truly Free are considered the enemy by the oppressors, and the U.S. government has become an oppressor of previously unheard of proportions. In addition, they are giving a license to loot and kill the American people to the most oppressive of the corporations, in order to seek to pacify us more and more, and get us to not fight back.

We haven't seen anything yet in the surgical application of terror and violence against the American people to quell their free spirit(s). The ultimate terrorist state, the U.S. government and military, is already more and more not tolerating any True Freedom in America; and, very soon, they will not tolerate it at all if we don't stop being passive and allowing them to terrorize us into complete submission and the total eradication of all True Liberty(ies) and Freedom(s).

People, let it not be so!

Sadly, S. Wolf Britain is

Fri, 10/08/2010 - 06:33 — Anonymous (not verified)

Sadly, S. Wolf Britain is correct in all his observations, assertions, and predictions.

I say this coming years ago. That's why I emmigrated.

I'd say Good Luck America, but there's no point -- it's over. The terror is only beginning.

This is the full employment

Fri, 10/08/2010 - 14:22 — Anonymous (not verified)

This is the full employment act for prison guards! How many of these states are using private prisons to hold the debtors. That is another way private corporations have found to get large transfers of money from the government. In Arizona they are using undocumented workers for these transfer. Is this what the other states are using instead?

Hey, "Anonymous -- Fri,

Fri, 10/08/2010 - 20:01 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

Hey, "Anonymous -- Fri, 10/08/2010 - 11:33", how can I get a hold of you? If no other way, please email me via my website at:

www.wolfbritain.com/

Thanks.

It is possible to see the

Fri, 10/08/2010 - 20:56 — I still believe another world is possible (not verified)

It is possible to see the broad and long overview of recent history from this article.
It is equally possible to understand the essence of Nazi Germany, and the eugenics movement, which is still thriving. Just substitute jewish for foreclosure, poor,or disposable.
Did you see the Congress' swift passing of the foreclosure bill, or CA assembly's not passing a more protections for consumers on the brink of foreclosure?
Your previous article re: Krugman, et al. upholding the b.s. of policy and classist structures was right on.
Those who HAVE are defining the problem, are the problem. Notice they are NOT interested in solutions-solutions would mean they wouldn't get to HAVE as much wealth. Take a hard look at what the Haves are really saying, and what they are not saying.

"The people united will

Fri, 10/08/2010 - 22:35 — jahf (not verified)

"The people united will never be defeated."

Of course, this statement doesn't apply here, since America is a nation whose people are very much divided against each other by their fears, bigotries and pettiness.

It is time for us to stand

Sat, 10/09/2010 - 02:51 — iRead (not verified)

It is time for us to stand up together, shoulder to shoulder, in the streets.
We do not need a Glen Beck whiners rally, nor a rally to restore sanity (though I will attend it).
We desperately need to simultaneously put five million awakened, pissed-off citizens in front of the DOJ and five million awakened, pissed-off people on Wall Street to demand justice for the looting of our economy, and the injustices we have endured as a result of the purposeful, fraudulent actions of a wealthy, powerful few who are even now being protected by the highest levels of government.

I stand ready to engage in the effort, to help organize, and to march on the enemies of this country.

I am sure that the city was

Sun, 10/10/2010 - 00:24 — Anonymous (not verified)

I am sure that the city was truthful when they said that White's 198 day visit only cost them $3,500; figures never lie but liars figure. The rest of the money came from the state, county and Feds. The feds pay on a graduated scale according to the length of incarceration. Most cities give a 3 day visit because that is the most profitable for the court. The actual figure would probably be many times higher. The city only directly bears a very small percentage of the cost.

we need to hang corrupt

Sun, 10/10/2010 - 01:05 — no justice (not verified)

we need to hang corrupt judge,s in the united states, beat them to death in public.!!!

This is already declared

Sun, 10/10/2010 - 09:08 — Anonymous (not verified)

This is already declared unconstitutional in 1980, right? So, we should be instructing people how to raise the legal objection on their own, pro se.

I bet if a police officer or

Mon, 10/11/2010 - 07:21 — Anonymous (not verified)

I bet if a police officer or FBI, CIA, NSA, Homeland Security Agent, etc... can not pay their debt, they will not go to jail.

Face it folks, you do not have to be classified as "poor" to not be able to pay your bills...especially in this engineered recession/depression...

Why-oh-why did I eat the Red

Mon, 10/11/2010 - 07:46 — Neogrrl (not verified)

Why-oh-why did I eat the Red Pill?

I can't wait until the

Mon, 10/11/2010 - 07:58 — August (not verified)

I can't wait until the country has collapsed, and the rich lose it all!

And the Gov. has the Gall to

Mon, 10/11/2010 - 08:59 — Anonymous (not verified)

And the Gov. has the Gall to spend BILLIONS of dollars on military toys to Kill Human Beings.

End the Military NOW....peoples lives come first !

1. the best way to bring the

Mon, 10/11/2010 - 09:04 — Anonymous (not verified)

1. the best way to bring the system down is to ... go into prison!

use its own momentum and stupidity to bring itself down.

it's the ONLY WAY to end it ... it has to collapse from within and it will, when we all storm the prisons

2. the when sh_t hits the fan, the SAFEST PLACE to be will be inside a prison.

you have guard protection, organized laundries, kitchens, food production, libraries, medical clinics, etc.

as the collapse accelerates, prison will be a step up

3. the best way to get into prison is to color zerox a $20 bill and hand it to a banker or a tax collector. They HAVE to charge you with counterfeiting. Which is the perfect laugh, because THEIR currency is the real counterfeit. So, haha.

we become activists who actually bring the system down using lawful principles of nature -- we force its collapse from within; and we get better food and medical care and shelter than we get living in the woods a roadside.

remember, prison is a step up. prison is how we bring the system down. the remaining will have to figure out how to organize freedom ... and ps, the invisible hand of London bankers aren't going to hand it over to you willie nillie

My best friend has been

Mon, 10/11/2010 - 09:46 — Anonymous (not verified)

My best friend has been stiffed by 5 of his last 7 clients, who never had any intention of paying him for programming services.

I once spent 4 years in litigation trying to get paid for 6 months work. I caught them quoting statistics from my program to a reporter in Missouri.

Theft of services is no different than stealing from a retail store or robbing a bank. We need equal protection under the law, per the constitution. These people belong in jail. I hope they rot there.

....from my cold dead hand...

Mon, 10/11/2010 - 11:43 — Anonymous (not verified)

Oh, like fighting undeclared

Mon, 10/11/2010 - 17:00 — Anonymous (not verified)

Oh, like fighting undeclared wars all over the world isn't unconstitutional.

It's just over here, get used to it.

Like the news broadcaster says on the Simpson's: "I've said it before and I'll say it again, 'Democracy just doesn't work!' "

But when has the U.S. really

Mon, 10/11/2010 - 22:26 — colonelgirdle (not verified)

But when has the U.S. really ever cared about whether something had "a devastating impact upon men and women whose only crime is that they are poor." ? My goodness, if we started using that as a criteria for concern & legislative action we would lose most of our Capitalist system & run the risk of improving conditions for most of our population.

I will be forwarding this article to friends & family who have scoffed when, for the past 5+ years, I have predicted the return of debtors' prisons in our rapidly declining country.

1913 we were lost.

Mon, 10/11/2010 - 22:32 — Anonymous (not verified)

"Young has since been jailed

Tue, 10/12/2010 - 11:44 — Tryon in Canada (not verified)

"Young has since been jailed five times for being unable to pay her fees." In point of fact these sentences typically result from the accused not showing up at the courtroom and so technically are not about imprisonment for debt but contempt of court charges. At least that is my understanding of it. Granted, it still smacks of jailing people for poverty, but in a more roundabout way. So get to the trial even if you can't pay!

What's next? Court ordered

Wed, 10/13/2010 - 11:51 — Anonymous (not verified)

What's next? Court ordered organ donation as restitution for debts?

Lest America die right now,

Wed, 10/13/2010 - 18:38 — Frances in California (not verified)

Lest America die right now, there is one thing all right-thinking (that's "correct" not wacko-crazy-frothing . . .) Americans must do: SEIZE. THE. MEANS. OF PRODUCTION. Seize their parking lots; seize their laundry soap; seize their batteries; seize their children's medications; seize the raw materials that make their weapons; seize the raw materials that make the gates of their gated communities; seize their books (we might learn much); seize their other books (we might find something prosecutable!); seize all their pencils . . . most of all? Seize all their toilet paper.

Neogrrl: Are you just being

Wed, 10/13/2010 - 18:43 — Frances in California Again (not verified)

Neogrrl: Are you just being way too subtle? You mean you ate the Red Pill (the one that kicks you out of the Matrix), so you're being snarky toward all those weaklings who begged for the Blue Pill so they could stay IN the Matrix and eat a potholder, thinking it's a steak? Or, did someone entirely too slick promise you something if only - IF ONLY - you'd eat the Blue Pill and not make waves, etc. . . . either way, nice post, so I guess you made your point twice in two different directions! I so need a nap.

You're such a "Copper-Top",

Wed, 10/13/2010 - 23:02 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

You're such a "Copper-Top", Frances. "NeoGrrl" was undoubtedly being facetious and very likely is glad she took the Red Pill, but just wishes sometimes, because of how incredibly and increasingly awful and horrific reality is, that she'd taken the Blue Pill. But I'm pretty sure that the truth has set her free and she wouldn't go back to living in fantasy-land no matter how much somebody paid her to do otherwise. Once they're truly awake, most people never go back.

You, on the other hand, clearly haven't taken the Red Pill (yet?); and, by the way you act, I think you've already taken the Blue Pill and never will take the Red Pill, or it's too late for you to do so. You always come into the tail end of these threads and leave some snarky comment(s), just hit and run and move on to the next person to put down. I've got your number, and that's what you can't stand, in-truth, about me. That and the fact that you can't intimidate me.

Wake up, Frances; and, if it isn't already too late for you, take the Red Pill before it very soon is too late.

It's all too late for the

Thu, 10/14/2010 - 07:50 — rm (not verified)

It's all too late for the US. We are hopelessly controlled by Mussolini style fascists who simply don't recognize what they are and cannot stop themselves. They are looting the nation of all its wealth and trying to fight wars all over the world. The whole US is on a suicide binge. It cannot be stopped. There's no "reforming" the US because all its institutions are hopelessly corrupt.

I say we feed the end of history. Push the US to collapse. Once the nation falls into total bankruptcy and social chaos, new political structures can emerge and people can rebuild. When the US collapses its predator and parasite classes (corporate CEOs and investment class) will simply leave and attach themselves to a new host. This class cannot be reformed. They can only be killed or their host can die and they will go away.

Putting fathers in jail for

Thu, 10/14/2010 - 16:20 — Anonymous (not verified)

Putting fathers in jail for not being able to pay child support is debtor's prison, too. My partner is in jail now for this charge, and the state's ORS (Office of Recovery Services) had a "clerical error" and did not credit him over $6000 he paid to his family in child support. The stress of the charges and his employers being hassled by the ORS lost him two jobs, the economy tanked, and he was not able to pay. Now he is serving one year in jail. Never been in trouble before, no other charges. And now, with a felony on his record, no future.

I used to be proud to be American. Not now.

"RM", we can't just simply

Thu, 10/14/2010 - 21:49 — S. Wolf Britain (not verified)

"RM", we can't just simply lay down and allow the self-destructive madness to steamroll right over all of us! Do you know how many millions, if not billions, of people will suffer horrific terrorism and torture at the hands of the governments of this world, all over the world, including and especially at the hands of the government of the U.S.?! For God's sake man, don't surrender to anything, encourage giving up and promoting the extreme suffering and demise of countless numbers of human beings!! RESIST!! Don't surrender, give in, or bow down to ANY of this evil!! We've GOT TO stand up and be counted against it!!

"Anonymous @ Thu, 10/14/2010 - 21:20", you're so right! It's all part of criminalizing the vast majority of people, and milking them for all that they can, even when they don't have it, and causing most people to live even more impoverished lives. The goal(s) of the powers-that-be is to make us all the "Proles" that Orwell wrote about, make us all bow down to and beholden to the state (aka evil), and therefore much more likely to completely bow down to evil and the final nails in our coffin. But we must not give them that satisfaction!! We've got nothing to lose unless we surrender our souls', sell out and give in to evil!!

If we must go down, let us at least go down standing for nothing but True Freedom and Liberty, and against all of the evil seeking to enslave and destroy us!!

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Cash-Strapped States Resurrect "Debtors' Prisons"

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