Locked Up for Being Poor

[didymus]

The Atlantic:

Locked Up for Being Poor

19-year-old Kevin Thompson didn’t think that he was going to jail the day he pulled his car out of the garage to go to his job in an auto-repair shop. He was pulled over for a speeding ticket and found out that he had not properly renewed his license. When Thompson appeared in traffic court, he was unable to pay the $810 fine and was put on a 30-day probation period to pay his ticket. The judge handed his case over to Judicial Correction Services, Inc., a for-profit corporation that oversees the collection of fines and the probation of people who have committed minor infractions, such as traffic tickets.

Thompson met with his parole officer from JCS weekly and made payments totaling $85, most of which he borrowed because he was unemployed. JCS kept $30 of those payments as a fee, so that amount didn’t count toward the total owed. Eventually, Thompson told his probation officer that he was unable to pay, and she informed him that he would have to appear before a judge to have his parole revoked. He ended up in a jail cell for owing $838 in fines and fees.

What Thompson experienced is called “pay-only” probation. It’s part of the growing private business of what’s euphemistically dubbed “incarceration alternatives,” a lucrative industry that ranges from electronic monitoring to drug treatment and halfway houses. Companies like JCS argue that they are providing an essential service by providing “offender-funded” supervision that doesn’t rely on tax dollars, as well as rehabilitative programs like “Financial Management” (for those convicted of writing bad checks) and “Job Readiness” (“Job skills such as goal-setting, job searching, the application process, grooming, and interviewing skills are discussed and practiced.”).

But for people like Thompson, this industry helps contribute to a cycle of jail, unemployment, and poverty. In late January, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against JCS and DeKalb County, alleging that pay-only probation unfairly targeted people who were too poor to pay at sentencing—and were, therefore, likely to be unable to pay later. “Across the county, the freedom of too many people is resting on their ability to pay,” said Nusrat Choudhury, an ACLU attorney who represents Thompson. “We seek to dismantle that two-tiered system of justice, which disproportionately punishes people of color.”

I don’t think people should get away without paying fines because they can’t pay, but locking them up is ridiculous. Likewise turning over collection to private companies if just begging for trouble.

 

[mikekle]

I agree, this is utterly stupid…they lock someone up due to them not being able to pay a fine, but then it ends up costing the taxpayers much more than the fine probably was in the first place…what kind of logic is this?! LOL

Im surprised more of the public does not demand this to stop…or do people just not care what our justice system does?

 

[AnastasiaRomano]

Yes, this is horribly stupid and cruel. So is jailing fathers for lack of payment of child support when the lack of payment is due to their unemployment or underemployment. Jail, after all, doesn’t improve your employment prospects…

 

[GEddie]

I agree, this is utterly stupid…they lock someone up due to them not being able to pay a fine, but then it ends up costing the taxpayers much more than the fine probably was in the first place…what kind of logic isotope this?! LOL

Im surprised more of the public does not demand this to stop…or do people just not care what our justice system does?

Or just don’t know…

ICXC NIKA

 

[St_Francis]

I agree, this is utterly stupid…they lock someone up due to them not being able to pay a fine, but then it ends up costing the taxpayers much more than the fine probably was in the first place…what kind of logic is this?! LOL

Im surprised more of the public does not demand this to stop…or do people just not care what our justice system does?

I didn’t know about this before, but I am more and more concerned about our penal system and philosophy. There are a lot of problems… bit this is particularly pernicious.

 

[ChurchSoldier]

The Atlantic:

I don’t think people should get away without paying fines because they can’t pay, but locking them up is ridiculous. Likewise turning over collection to private companies if just begging for trouble.

I have great concerns about our civil rights as our prisons are being turned over to private companies. One clause in the contracts is the municipality “guaranteeing” a certain occupancy rate.

 

[GaryTaylor]

The Atlantic:

I don’t think people should get away without paying fines because they can’t pay, but locking them up is ridiculous. Likewise turning over collection to private companies if just begging for trouble.

but locking them up is ridiculous.

We are encouraging the revolving door with this stupidity and labeling basically normal people and then traumatizing them, and possibly for life. Then if thats not enough, God forbid they do something again, they then are close to a career criminal. The sequence badly explained and perhaps with a bit of disgust, its how we filled American prisons and lead the world in incarceration. Basically we are abusing people.

And while in there people like Jihad John from the Nation of islam or whomever, will fan the American hate flames.

 

[hazcompat]

Poverty is a violence inflicted!

Peace

 

[Ridgerunner]

The Atlantic:

I don’t think people should get away without paying fines because they can’t pay, but locking them up is ridiculous. Likewise turning over collection to private companies if just begging for trouble.

I wasn’t aware of the private company thing. It’s not around here. But forget them for a moment, your solution to nonpayment of fines, then, is what?

 

[styrgwillidar]

I wasn’t aware of the private company thing. It’s not around here. But forget them for a moment, your solution to nonpayment of fines, then, is what?

Mine would be some kind of community service that actually is of monetary value to the city. Staffing a library or aid facility, clean-up of graffiti, litter pick-up removal etc.

Couple of problems-
It could take staff and money to supervise

Unions will complain that work positions are eliminated by the use of the folks doing those same jobs as community service in lieu of fines.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Mine would be some kind of community service that actually is of monetary value to the city. Staffing a library or aid facility, clean-up of graffiti, litter pick-up removal etc.

Couple of problems-
It could take staff and money to supervise

Unions will complain that work positions are eliminated by the use of the folks doing those same jobs as community service in lieu of fines.

A lot of cities won’t even use community service anymore. I live in a part of the country in which unions almost don’t exist, and yet community service is falling out of favor. The people do need supervision, a lot of it. Sometimes they commit a little vandalism in the course of doing it. Oftentimes the work they do is terribly shoddy. And there are hazards to it, for which the political subdivision could be liable. Sometimes the defendants are people supervisors don’t really want to be out in the open with when they have tools in their hands.

The one thing that seems to succeed fairly well is work with fire departments, as long as there aren’t too many defendants there at a time. You can put a guy to work on washing truck tires or polishing brass endlessly, and most of the time there are firemen there to closely supervise. And most firefighters are fairly robust people. A half dozen or more firefighters watching two or three guys wash tires isn’t terribly hazardous.

 

[powerofk]

The Atlantic:

I don’t think people should get away without paying fines because they can’t pay, but locking them up is ridiculous. Likewise turning over collection to private companies if just begging for trouble.

The bigger problem here is laying on a ridiculously high fine for such a minor infraction. I admit, I was arrested once for nonpayment of a ticket… err, actually, the ticket was dropped, but the “nickel and dime” court fees (which actually added up to about 4x the amount of the ticket - and many were completely unrelated to the ticket - sexual assault kit fee? really? for a fender bender?) weren’t dropped. But all I had to pay when I got arrested was the fees + a $100 fee for a bench warrant.

 

[mikekle]

I have great concerns about our civil rights as our prisons are being turned over to private companies. One clause in the contracts is the municipality “guaranteeing” a certain occupancy rate.

Uh,I think if this is true, then this would be HIGHLY illegal…as it would prove they are keeping laws in place for the sake of keeping cells full…THIS NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED.

This would also prove without a doubt, that ALL cops are corrupt and thinking about keeping cells full, instead of what they should be doing when it comes to arresting someone or not…this is very frightening to me, and should be for all of us really.

Do you know if this is a local thing or on a national scale?

 

[ucfengr]

I wasn’t aware of the private company thing. It’s not around here. But forget them for a moment, your solution to nonpayment of fines, then, is what?

Most traffic violations are more about raising revenue than about safety. I’d propose cities tax their citizens sufficient to meet municipal needs and dispense with this back door taxation that mainly impacts the poor.

 

[Suudy]

Most traffic violations are more about raising revenue than about safety. I’d propose cities tax their citizens sufficient to meet municipal needs and dispense with this back door taxation that mainly impacts the poor.

Ain’t this the truth!

There’s a very small town (population 2500) near where I went to college that was notorious for speeding tickets. They had a 25 mph zone on the south side of town that went for about 2 miles past the last house on the road. Then it went up to 35 for about a 1/4 mile, then 45 for another 1/4 mile, and finally up to 60. I was talking to a retired state trooper about that stretch and it turns out that the state attorney general was getting so many complaints that the state reviewed that stretch of highway. And they were forced to change it to 35 for 1 mile out of town, then 45 for the next mile, then up to 55 (well, now 60). It was clear that particular stretch of highway was for revenue, not for safety.

And in fact, this town was so notorious, it got mentioned on national TV during a televised football game for my alma mater. ESPN did a Thu night game, and the announcers, when mentioning what the other team had to avoid to win was to mention not speeding through that town.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This would also prove without a doubt, that ALL cops are corrupt and thinking about keeping cells full, instead of what they should be doing when it comes to arresting someone or not…this is very frightening to me, and should be for all of us really.

Do you know if this is a local thing or on a national scale?

It certainly isn’t everywhere. In my part of the country, the police very much resist jailing people for minor things, even middling things. When the police or deputies or whatever run the jails themselves, they don’t want people in them. They must be watched continuously. They must be fed. They often vandalize the cells. The drunks vomit. The drug addicts begin withdrawal. Some need meds they don’t have with them. Some attempt suicide. Some use the cell floor as a toilet. It costs money and a lot of work to have people in jail and for the most part the costs are never recouped.

By and large, law enforcement people don’t like it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Most traffic violations are more about raising revenue than about safety. I’d propose cities tax their citizens sufficient to meet municipal needs and dispense with this back door taxation that mainly impacts the poor.

Fines are not for revenue, by and large. Granted, there are some traffic traps, usually in very small towns on major highways, that use traffic as a revenue source. That prompted my own state to recently pass legislation prohibiting towns from receiving revenue from fines of all kinds greater than their ordinary tax revenue. For most towns, that wasn’t a problem.

For most towns and cities, fines are intended to deter people from doing the same thing again. If I go through your neighborhood at 55 miles/hour when the speed limit is 25, you don’t want me doing it again. How do you deter me from it? Yes, there are the point systems, but after that, what? Better perhaps, even for me, to have to shell out $100 or $200 than to try to keep track of points that I probably can’t keep track of anyway. It would definitely slow me down to avoid paying another fine.

 

[ChurchSoldier]

Uh,I think if this is true, then this would be HIGHLY illegal…as it would prove they are keeping laws in place for the sake of keeping cells full…THIS NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED.

This would also prove without a doubt, that ALL cops are corrupt and thinking about keeping cells full, instead of what they should be doing when it comes to arresting someone or not…this is very frightening to me, and should be for all of us really.

Do you know if this is a local thing or on a national scale?

Definitely National.

www.cca.com

"Private prison companies, however, essentially admit that their business model depends on locking up more and more people. For example, in a 2010 Annual Report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) stated: “The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by . . . leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices . . . .” As incarceration rates skyrocket, the private prison industry expands at exponential rates, holding ever more people in its prisons and jails, and generating massive profits. " aclu.org/prisoners-rights/private-prisons

 

[GaryTaylor]

Definitely National.

www.cca.com

"Private prison companies, however, essentially admit that their business model depends on locking up more and more people. For example, in a 2010 Annual Report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) stated: “The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by . . . leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices . . . .” As incarceration rates skyrocket, the private prison industry expands at exponential rates, holding ever more people in its prisons and jails, and generating massive profits. " aclu.org/prisoners-rights/private-prisons

This has been an on-going issue.

truth-out.org/news/item/20880-for-profit-prisons-eight-statistics-that-show-the-problems

90% Occupancy

States sign agreements with private prisons to guarantee that they will fill a certain number of beds in jail at any given point. The most common rate is 90%, though some prisons are able to snag a 100% promise from their local governments. Because of these contracts, the state is obligated to keep prisons almost full at all times or pay for the beds anyway, so the incentive is to incarcerate more people and for longer in order to fill the quota.

25%

One in every four people that is incarcerated worldwide is held captive in a United States jail. How is it that a country with only 5% of the world’s population has 25% of all the inmates? Simple: prisoners are source of revenue for private companies, so the demand for incarcerating them is especially high.

11 Times

Violent crimes are down overall, so how does the United States keep prisons stocked instead? Amplifying the war on drugs: there are now 11 times as many people in jail for drug convictions than there were in 1980, constituting 50% of the prison population. Longer mandatory minimum sentences also keeps the inmates in longer. Most people incarcerated for drug charges are non-violent, have no prior record, and are addicts rather than major drug-traffickers.

50%

Nearly half of all detained immigrants are held in privately owned facilities. The fact that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has stepped up its game to detain more undocumented immigrants – about 400,000 each year – has actually increased the need for private systems as most detainees will linger in the system waiting for court dates for months if not years.

Civil rights groups have deemed the quality of care provided in immigrant detention centers unacceptable, particularly because of the large numbers of preventable fatalities and sexual assaults.

$45 million

The three largest for-profit prison corporations have spent more than $45 million on campaign donations and lobbyists to keep politicians on the side of privatized incarceration. In light of all of their ethical violations, it’s obvious that they have to offer some incentive for keeping their business legal.

We should helping those stuck live the American dream, not traumatize them in a revolving door system which has no rehab, creates better criminals and terrorists.

 

[mikekle]

Fines are not for revenue, by and large. Granted, there are some traffic traps, usually in very small towns on major highways, that use traffic as a revenue source. That prompted my own state to recently pass legislation prohibiting towns from receiving revenue from fines of all kinds greater than their ordinary tax revenue. For most towns, that wasn’t a problem.

For most towns and cities, fines are intended to deter people from doing the same thing again. If I go through your neighborhood at 55 miles/hour when the speed limit is 25, you don’t want me doing it again. How do you deter me from it? Yes, there are the point systems, but after that, what? Better perhaps, even for me, to have to shell out $100 or $200 than to try to keep track of points that I probably can’t keep track of anyway. It would definitely slow me down to avoid paying another fine.

Yes, but how long have these fines/ punishments, been in place? People are still committing these violations today, so that proves the laws are not effective and probably never were, usually when something is found to be ineffective, something different is tried, after all, the purpose of laws is to stop or reduce the number of people who offend.

We are far overdue to try something new, anyone can see that the these fines have not stopped or even reduced the number of people who violate these laws.