Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
In October of 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union published a report titled In for a Penny: The Rise of America’s New Debtors’ Prisons. The ACLU had found that debtors’ prisons were “flourishing” in this country, “more than two decades after the Supreme Court prohibited imprisoning those who are too poor to pay their legal debts.” In 2011, Huffington Post reported that debtors’ prisons were legal in more than one-third of the states in this country.
According to the ACLU report, some state and local governments “have turned aggressively to using the threat and reality of imprisonment to squeeze revenue out of the poorest defendants who appear in their courts. These modern-day debtors’ prisons impose devastating human costs, waste taxpayer money and resources, undermine our criminal justice system, are racially skewed, and create a two-tiered system of justice.”
Marie Diamond—writing for ThinkProgress in December 2011:
Federal imprisonment for unpaid debt has been illegal in the U.S. since 1833. It’s a practice people associate more with the age of Dickens than modern-day America. But as more Americans struggle to pay their bills in the wake of the recession, collection agencies are using harsher methods to get their money, ushering in the return of debtor’s prisons.
Two years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported—after interviewing twenty judges across the country—that the number of borrowers who were threatened with arrest in their courtrooms had “surged since the financial crisis began.” The Wall Street Journal added that some borrowers who were jailed had “no idea before being locked up that they were sued to collect an outstanding debt” because of “sloppy, incomplete or even false documentation.” Diamond said it was becoming more and more common for debtors to serve time in jail. She added that some debtors are even required to pay for their time spent in jail—which, she said, exacerbates their dire financial situations.
Back in 2011, NPR told the story of what happened to an Illinois woman named Robin Sanders:
She [Robin Sanders] was driving home when an officer pulled her over for having a loud muffler. But instead of sending her off with a warning, the officer arrested Sanders, and she was taken right to jail.
“That’s when I found out [that] I had a warrant for failure to appear in Macoupin County. And I didn’t know what it was about.”
Sanders owed $730 on a medical bill. She says she didn’t even know a collection agency had filed a lawsuit against her.
“They say they send out these court notices, and nobody gets them,” Sanders says.
She spent four days in jail waiting for her father to raise $500 for her bail. That money was then turned over to the collection agency.
Just this month, the ACLU of Ohio published a report titled The Outskirts of Hope: How Ohio’s Debtors’ Prisons Are Ruining Lives and Costing Communities. The ACLU found that many municipalities in Ohio “routinely imprison those who are unable to pay fines and court costs despite a 1983 United States Supreme Court decision declaring this practice to be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.” The ACLU said that affluent residents of Ohio who are sentenced to pay fines after being convicted of a criminal or traffic offense can simply pay the fines and go on with their lives. The same does not hold true for “Ohio’s poor and working poor” who may not have the monetary resources to pay their fines. Such people may find themselves at the “beginning of a protracted process that may involve contempt charges, mounting fees, arrest warrants, and even jail time. The stark reality is that, in 2013, Ohioans are being repeatedly jailed simply for being too poor to pay fines.”
Some Findings from The Outskirts of Hope:
Debtors’ Prisons In Ohio
• Despite clear constitutional and legislative prohibitions, debtors’ prison practices are alive and well throughout Ohio. An investigation by the ACLU of Ohio uncovered conclusive evidence of these practices in 7 of the 11 Ohio counties examined.
• Courts in Huron, Cuyahoga, and Erie counties are among the worst offenders. In the second half of 2012, over 20% of all bookings in the Huron County Jail were related to failure to pay fines. In Cuyahoga County, the Parma Municipal Court jailed at least 45 people for failure to pay fines and costs between July 15 and August 31, 2012. During the same period in Erie County, the Sandusky Municipal Court jailed at least 75 people for similar charges.
• Based on the ACLU of Ohio’s investigation, there is no evidence that any of these people were given hearings to determine whether or not they were financially able to pay their fines, as required by the law.
The ACLU of Ohio reported that the U.S. Constitution, the Ohio Constitution, and Ohio Revised Code all prohibit debtors’ prisons. It said that the courts are required by law to determine whether an individual is too poor to pay a fine before jailing the person. It added that “debtors’ prisons actually waste taxpayer dollars by arresting and incarcerating people who will simply never be able to pay their fines, which are in any event usually smaller than the amount it costs to arrest and jail them.”
According to CBS News, “high rates of unemployment and government fiscal shortfalls that followed the housing crash have increased the use of debtors’ prisons, as states look for ways to replenish their coffers.” Inimai Chettiar, director of the justice program at New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice, said, “It’s like drawing blood from a stone. States are trying to increase their revenue on the backs of the poor.” He added, “It’s a growing problem nationally, particularly because of the economic crisis.”
Does it make sense to jail poor people for failure to pay their fines when jailing them only drives them deeper into debt and also “costs counties more than the actual debt because of the cost of arresting and incarcerating individuals?”
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“Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope — some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity.”
– President Lyndon B. Johnson (State of the Union, 1964)
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SOURCES
The Outskirts of Hope: How Ohio’s Debtors’ Prisons Are Ruining Lives and Costing Communities (ACLU)
IN FOR A PENNY: The Rise of America’s New Debtors’ Prisons (ACLU)
Report: Ohio Is Illegally Throwing Poor People In Jail For Owing Money (Think Progress)
The Return Of Debtor’s Prisons: Thousands Of Americans Jailed For Not Paying Their Bills (Think Progress)
Debtors’ Prison Legal In More Than One-Third Of U.S. States (Huffington Post)
Debtor Arrests Criticized (Wall Street Journal)
Welcome to Debtors’ Prison, 2011 Edition (Wall Street Journal)
Modern-day debtors’ prison alleged in Ohio (NBC/AP)
Unpaid Bills Land Some Debtors Behind Bars (NPR)
Modern-day debtors’ prison alleged in Ohio (NBC News)
Debtors’ Prison Is Back — and Just as Cruel as Ever
by Ross Kenneth Urken
Aug 30th 2012
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/08/30/debtors-prison-is-back-and-just-as-cruel-as-ever/
Excerpt:
To most of us, “debtors’ prison” sounds like an archaic institution, something straight out of a Dickens novel. But the idea of jailing people who can’t pay what they owe is alive and well in 21st-century America.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, debt collectors in Missouri, Illinois, Alabama and other states are using a legal loophole to justify jailing poor citizens who legitimately cannot pay their debts.
Here’s how clever payday lenders work the system in Missouri — where, it should be noted, jailing someone for unpaid debts is illegal under the state constitution.
First, explains St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the creditor gets a judgment in civil court that a debtor hasn’t paid a sum that he owes. Then, the debtor is summoned to court for an “examination”: a review of their financial assets.
If the debtor fails to show up for the examination — as often happens in such cases — the creditor can ask for a “body attachment” — essentially, a warrant for the debtor’s arrest. At that point, the police can haul the debtor in and jail them until there’s a court hearing, or until they pay the bond. No coincidence, the bond is usually set at the amount of the original debt. As the Dispatch notes:
“Debtors are sometimes summoned to court repeatedly, increasing chances that they’ll miss a date and be arrested. Critics note that judges often set the debtor’s release bond at the amount of the debt and turn the bond money over to the creditor — essentially turning publicly financed police and court employees into private debt collectors for predatory lenders.”
Standing Up for Those Who Can’t Pay
The practice — in addition to putting an additional squeeze on poor people — turns courts and police into enforcers for private creditors, from payday lenders to health care providers. The situation prompted Illinois legislators in July to pass a bill “to protect vulnerable consumers from being hauled to jail over unpaid debts,” in the words of state Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The Debtors’ Rights Act of 2012 requires two “pay or appear” court notices to be sent to debtors before an arrest can be made, and also prevents creditors from calling for multiple examinations unless the debtor’s financial state has significantly changed.
Many of the victims, Madigan noted at the time, were living on funds that are legally protected from being used for outstanding debt judgments, such as Social Security, unemployment insurance or veterans’ benefits. In one case she cited, an Illinois court brought a “pay or appear” order against a mentally disabled man living on legally protected disability benefits of $690 a month. The man told the court of his circumstances but was still ordered to pay $100 a month or appear in court once a month for a three-year period.
Jeff because they have nothing to fear from the government.
That will also not change with Hillary or most GOP contenders either.
They are in bed with Wall Street.
People who think Hillary would be a hero for the people are delusional. She is deep into corruption with Wall St and the insurance industry up to her neck. Voting for Hillary would be like voting for yet another 4 more years of Bush.
The real question is, what effect will the Revolution in the US have upon the rest of the planet?
I get the sense an Arab Spring effect would occur across much of the ‘Western Govts’
This only makes the purposes of “bankruptcy reforms” clearer. They reformed the bankruptcy law to screw the middle class further.
Good article and analysis of the debt problem in the U.S. Not to sound redundant but when Wall Street investment bankers can walk away with billions of taxpayer dollars after crashing and burning, you would think they might be a little compassionate when it comes to debt relief. Apparently, that is not the case.
This is what we have turned out Police Officers into. Revenue collectors and oppressors. I understand for some basic traffic laws but we have gone too far under the guise of safety when in reality it is all about Revenue Collecting through dirty tactics like artificially low speed limits or outright lying based on presumed guilt without evidence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k0g7WGi1g8
Love how the officers are creating MUCH more of a safety hazard here than any speeder would. I mean this is all supposedly about safety correct? The officers are creating a dangerous traffic situation here….to collect money for the state.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4r87eNC9Uw
and when they are not running radar?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6yaeD-E_MY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ_pJFPyt04
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2sWiZ8BizI
The first time I heard of this practice was several months ago, then read an article about it last night. This does not even come close to passing the smell test when local law enforcement picks up people and then sets bail just high enough to cover the debt plus court and incarceration fees.
I think they feel safe in picking on people like this because collection agencies know such debtors have no resources to sue them. All one can hope for is one of these days they will arrest the wrong person and all the parties involved find themselves on the wrong end of a major lawsuit.
Glad to see this reported, because there is no disinfectant as effective as the “Tincture of Sunshine.”
lexmanifesta,
I can’t take credit for remembering Johnson’s 1964 State of the Union address. The Johnson quote was included in one of the ACLU reports.
Miss a traffic ticket, go to jail?
Debtor prisons, once a relic of the 18th century, are making a frightening comeback in the U.S. justice system
By Alex Kane
Feb 11, 2013
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/11/miss_a_traffic_ticket_go_to_jail/
Excerpt:
Kawana Young, a single mother of two kids, was arrested in Michigan after failing to pay money she owed as a result of minor traffic offenses. She was recently laid off from her job, and could not pay the fees she owed because she couldn’t find another source of employment. So a judge sentenced her to three days in jail. In addition, Young was charged additional fees for being booked and for room and board for a place she did not want to be. In total, she has been jailed five times for being unable to pay her debts.
“It doesn’t make sense to jail people when they can’t pay because they definitely can’t pay while they’re in jail,” said Young.Debtor prisons seem to belong in America’s past. But if you think the existence of prisons for people who can’t afford to pay their debts in the past, think again. Young’s ordeal, profiled in an American Civil Liberties Union report, began in 2005, after she was ticketed because she was driving without her license. It all came to a head in 2010, when Young was arrested because she did not pay off all of her debts from traffic violations. That arrest led to the judge ordering Young to jail due to her inability to pay off the money.
Prison time for poor people in debt remains something that is practiced throughout the United States, despite the fact that a 1983 Supreme Court decision ruled that a prisoner on probation who could not afford to pay his debts could not be thrown in jail for that reason. The practice of imprisoning people for debt is being fueled by the economic crash that has decimated state and city budgets. Debtor prisons are also on the rise thanks to the zeal of private companies that “file lawsuits against debtors and often fail to serve them with notice of court dates or intentionally serve them at incorrect addresses,” as the Brennan Center for Justice’s Inimai Chettiar noted. “When debtors do not show up, agencies procure arrest warrants from courts, leading to incarceration of the debtors. Bail is usually set at an amount equal to or higher than the original fees and fines they defendants couldn’t pay in the first place. All this has amounted to a return of debtors prisons.”A 2010 report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lays out the breadth of this problem. Titled “In For a Penny: The Rise of America’s New Debtor Prisons,” the report examines how “day after day, indigent defendants are imprisoned for failing to pay legal debts they can never hope to manage. In many cases, poor men and women end up jailed or threatened with jail though they have no lawyer representing them.”
Dredd,
The judge’s are right there on the front line. They are facilitating the use of the court as leverage to collect debt. A judge can always make the observation that something is illegal and remedy the situation. They many times don’t because the illegality in jailing the debtor is based upon the debtor coming forward with proof that the failure to pay was not willful. This requires proof that you are financially unable to pay and that the disability is not the result of failure to pursue employment compensated sufficiently to enable the debtor to liquidate his/her debt. Many of the poor don’t understand this and without legal representation fail to meet this burden Judges in large part have not read, Nickled and Dimed. Judges in large part have no apparent ability to understand the plight of the working poor. Judges do know well, how to serve corporate power whether it be municipal or private. They know who votes and who has access to political power and it isn’t the hopeless impoverished soul pleading poverty.
We have come along way and declared and fought a lot of wars since LBJ declared a war on poverty.
Elaine, thanks for remembering LBJ’s 1964 State of the Union speech. I might add that the wealth disparity in 1964 was profoundly different then it is today. A minimum wage of, say $15.00/hr would probably go along ways toward eliminating many of these coercive collection efforts that result in net loss burdens for taxpayers.
The Return of Debtors’ Prison via Court Fees
The judges and the judicial system, including court staff, are an integral part of this. The debt collectors, and their scummy tactics, aren’t the only players. I’m aware of a biased court supervisor who sent a notice of hearing to the wrong address. Result? A large judgment against a defendant who didn’t know about the hearing.
It’s time for the judiciary to review the laws regarding debtors who are unable to pay. Incarcerating debtors through tricky, unconstitutional tactics, is an abomination and a blight on this country.
Soon…Soon… The Peasants will tire of this soon….. they will tire of the Bill of Rights being systematically removed, they will tire of the abuses and the corrupt…. and then, justice will come from the masses . It is coming, watch and see.
Already the partisan divisions between the right and left are being understood by both sides for what they are…. political noise, distractions…”Hey look over there!”.. Corporate Fascism is finally being recognized for what it is by everyone, Thievery and Oppression, and it will be rooted out.
As our economy worsens, and the police state repression widens, are y’all finally beginning to understand why government (federal and states) fear
the consequences of an an aroused, angry citizenry that is armed and inching ever closer towards acting on their anger.
There is a long-term plan to confiscate all firearms – except for the police state.
Elaine:
Thank you for the article. I can vouch for this especially as it relates to these folks. It becomes a downward spiral, first they get nicked and fined, then cannot pay the fine are arrested, more fines are added and it becomes a form of debt peonage for the convicted.
Fines are not restitutive in nature. A court can require restitution for damages a victim of a criminal has suffered but fines are an abstract construct. The state suffers no direct damages that are indemnified by fines only. Relief in the form of community service is often a good source for some but it does border on equal protection issues because the well off can simply write a check and not have to endure servitude.
In our state, the constitution allows the state to imprison people for absconding on debts but not for the debt itself
Article 1 Section 17
SECTION 17 IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. There shall be no imprisonment for debt, except in cases of absconding debtors.
It could be argued that failure to pay fines are absconding but when the person hasn’t fled the state, it would be more difficult to argue.
WA also still has a Ne Exeat statute under Chapter 7.44 RCW.
Elaine,
I had no idea this existed. OMG, we have a significant percentage of our populace who would return us to the age of Victorian England. The truth actually being returning us to feudalism, of which having an institution such as a “debtors prison” would be a shining example.
Elaine:
interesting story, from what I can tell the local and state governments here in Virginia are going all out to collect as much revenue as they can. Although I dont know about debtors prisons.
It does seem rather ridiculous to imprison someone for a few thousand dollars. Make a payment arrangement with them for 25 bucks a month or even have them do some sort of community service 1 saturday a month for 3 or 4 months. The local union would probably complain about that.
Why didn’t lawyers (e.g. American Bar Association) stop this from happening?
If something is against the law and they sanction that illegal behavior, can’t the ABA or local Bar sanction those lawyers?
Elaine,
I had no idea this practice was in place. Parma is not far from where I live. Time to write some emails and get in touch with those who are working to right these wrongs.
Thanks for the heads up.
Jesus will be wroth with people that do not forgive. The people that do not forgive have Satan in them. Have Satan in you have a dead soul. Have a dead soul give nothing that is good.
We are a debtor to God with a debt we cannot pay. It is the debt of death. Forgive the debt of whoever; God will forgive your debt. How can that be? I will tell you. To even be able to forgive is the king of forgivers in your soul forgiving others. The devil is the creator of jails. That is why there is the problem that we have. The devil likes to create problems when people think they are solving a problem. Jesus ministered to souls in the devils jail when he laid his life down for us. Yes folks there is an unseen jail too. That is a holding pen for lost souls untill judgment day for their final end. NDE people think it is Hell.
Great story Elaine. It is maddening to imagine that a poor person can be jailed because they are unable to pay their bills. Kudos to the ACLU for shedding some much needed sunlight on this growing problem. Let’s end the war on drugs and start a new war on poverty.