This blog will only address a small part of that problem and will discuss how the poor are being jailed for their inability to pay fines and fees levied on them by the Justice System. Although I have provided four different sites supporting the following facts, there are thousands. Simply search DEBTORS PRISONS IN THE US.
FACT: Literally thousands of poor and indigent individuals in our nation are being imprisoned for debt. Sadly, most of those caught in this unconstitutional practice are like my relative...doomed because she is poor. (a) (b)
Carl Takei's article, "Courts Should Stop Jailing People for Being Poor", (b) points out some blatant facts: "Courts have found that incarcerating people for debts they couldn’t afford to pay violates the 14th Amendment. Further, it creates hardships for men and women who already struggle with re-entering society after being released from prison or jail, and wastes resources in an often fruitless effort to extract payments. In an age when more Americans are deprived of their liberty than ever before, unnecessarily and unfairly, we should be shutting down debtors’ prisons, not creating more of them."
Obviously, releasing people from jail incarcerated simply because they can't pay their fees, would empty a lot of beds, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the taxpayers. That's a given and will not be discussed in this blog. I want my readers to focus on the injustice of this all and the fact our elected representatives are doing nothing to stop it. Instead of correcting a situation violating our rights under the Constitution of the United States, they continue to allow this practice while wasting time legislating personal morals, their rich benefactors money demands or letting our country come to the brink of financial ruin.
Because so much information is simply a click away on the internet supporting the truth of this blog and very little denying it, I will let the words of others confirm the truth of today's subject while I convey how this nightmare is hitting in my home and eating away at the life of my relative.
She is a first time offender at 30 years of age needing money to get home and see her critically ill Mother. After trying to borrow the money without success, in her mind, the only course of action was the one that landed her in jail...She tried stealing something to sell and get the money she so desperately desired. She got caught. She pleaded guilty, got deferred adjudication and 5 years probation. Then, American Justice kicked in.
- THE CHARGES DON'T FIT THE CRIME: First, she was charged with a felony robbery when all she stole was a $79 rechargeable battery for a drill. Why? After she realized the store staff knew she had stolen something, they started chasing her. She stopped inside the store and dropped her purse where she had hidden the battery. At least five adult male employees of the hardware store grabbed her and violently held her down until the cops arrived. She repeatedly begged them to let go because they were hurting her. Even though she had stopped and wasn't running, they did not relent. She bit the one twisting her arm. For this reason, her small theft of a battery became a felony.
- THE TRUTH OF COURT APPOINTED ATTORNEYS: Unlike you see on TV, court-appointed attorneys don't come running to the rescue of those unable to pay. As a matter of fact, her attorney never came to see her until they went to court, made no attempts to get the case reduced to a misdemeanor due to the extenuating circumstances or bothered to contact her when her court date was postponed multiple times. He did talk to her once on the phone.
- PRISONERS, UNABLE TO MAKE BAIL, SIT IN JAIL FOR UNDETERMINED AMOUNTS OF TIME: Prisoners do not get to go to court right away like you see on TV. Without her attorney available to explain how the system works or what she should expect, the only answers she got about anything were from other inmates! She sat in jail, unable to make bail for almost two months, scared, confused and suffering from the symptoms of her severe depression.
- JAIL FOOD: Food provided for prisoners in the complex where my relative was held was the same everyday...bad and very small amounts. Although she gained about 20 pounds in two months, she was always hungry, what they were given was not seasoned and mostly inedible. Other inmates told her she was gaining weight because there are additives in what they are served to make up for the quality and lack of nutrition. Breakfast started at 4 am. There is a commissary that sold snacks, stamps, shampoos, etc. at ridiculously inflated prices, but that required money. Understandably, extra food purchased from there was coveted and had to be guarded at all times if you did not want someone stealing it.
- THE COMMISSARY: I've already mentioned the commissary and its over priced goods. For instance an individual package of ketchup they give away at fast food joints costs $.25. Two sheets of notebook paper...$.25. Use your imagination on the prices of real snacks, personal care items or stamps! Being indigent, means no shampoo, no deodorant, no toothbrush, etc., etc., etc. The fact inmates have to purchase anything they need while incarcerated at horrendous prices makes my husband and I wonder where our tax dollars are being spent.
- THROWN INTO THE STREETS: When she was released, she had no way to call for someone to pick her up, no bus fare, no money, no where to stay...nothing. She was simply dumped out the front door with no assistance. Does this sound like a system that cares anything about rehabilitating people caught up in its clutches? She borrowed a phone from a passing stranger and called her mom. Luckily, she was out of her coma, had just been released and was recovering at home, When her parents learned of their daughter's plight, they borrowed money for bail to bring her home. Now, she is providing most of the care for her disabled parents.
- COURT COSTS: The court accessed her over $5000 in court costs to be paid monthly in the amount of $100. If she misses a payment and cannot pay the whole amount, a warrant will be issued for her immediate arrest, probation cancelled and she will have to serve her entire sentence in prison. This atrocity is happening in America, not the Middle Ages!
- PROBATION SYSTEM INHIBITS REHABILITATION: The day before her first probation meeting, my relative called to verify she had the correct time and place. Although no one had bothered to call and cancel the appointment, she was informed the official was not at work that week. Her appointment was rescheduled. At the rescheduled meeting she was chastised about asking for an extension, charged for it anyway and told not to make it a habit if she didn't want her probation canceled. She was flabbergasted! She explained her money situation and inability to locate a job, but was not offered any assistance with those. However, the probation officer gave her information to sign up for community service and mandatory classes, both involving more fees. This system is not concerned with helping those in its grip. It is all about the money!
- PROBATION FEES: Speaking of money, she has to pay $100 for the privilege of meeting with this probation officer and peeing in a cup! Drugs were not involved with her charges. It is my opinion, if the probationer is not receiving anything but instructions on what they have to pay next, the state could save a lot of money by sending an email, firing the officer and sending these offenders to a clinic to take care of the test!
- FEES FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE: Her 250 hours of community service was accompanied by a $55 fee for the orientation class. It would be left up to her to find some place to satisfy the 10 hour monthly requirement. For a $79 battery?
- COSTLY OFFENDER CLASSES: She was also told to attend a 14 week Outpatient Behavioral Health Service class designed for violent offenders. The cost? $560! Why? Remember the bite? For this, she will get to meet 28 times with violent rapists, murderers, child molesters, etc. The system is actually bringing her into contact with very undesirable people. Great for rehabilitation!
- MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE TO PAY: The monthly fees accessed her are $200, plus another $615 due before her second visit with her probation officer. That is a total of $815 she has no way of paying unless she borrows or steals the money. Results...Her probation will be canceled and she will be thrown into jail for a felony charge of stealing an item valued at less than $100 accompanied by the fact she tried to defend herself from assault!
- AFFECTS ON FAMILY MEMBERS: The system is making her life worse. Unable to find a job or cope with the day to day pressures involved in working, she has no means of paying these fees. The first month her parents, living on social security disability, made a partial payment for the probation officer fee and an uncle covered the court fees for his niece. The Mom had to defer her car insurance payment in order to pay that partial fee. This decision meant a double payment the next month on her insurance, depleting the amount of money left to buy food.
- INABILITY TO BORROW MONEY AND GET A JOB: Because of mental health issues, this highly educated young woman has not been able to to hold a steady job for the last 5 years, i.e. she's been lost on the streets, cut off from her family. In addition, her once perfect credit rating bit the dust a long ago making her ability to borrow money legally impossible.
- A SYSTEM FOR THE POOR...NOT THE WEALTHY: A wealthy person is not bothered with such concerns. Their high price attorneys usually step in making something as minor as this situation go away. If charges are filed, they simply pay all the fees up front, don't have to see a probation officer, don't have the impending threat of going to prison hanging over their head and go out into the world to do as they please. Therefore, this system is discriminating horribly against the poor!
- THE INJUSTICE: In less than three weeks from this blog entry, this beautiful young lady who was the victim of a merciless crime five years ago and failed by the mental health system, is in jeopardy of being incarcerated for several years because she stole a $79 battery, tried to ward off her assailants in the store and does not have the money to navigate the legalities of our failing justice system.
Now, 50 years later, our country has digressed to the shameful status quo. The subject of today's blog is just one of many issues our legislatures need to address immediately. Instead, lawmakers turn a deaf ear to the cries of the poor, middle class and seniors. Their primary concerns appear lining their own pockets with riches, legislating personal tenets and accommodating their benefactors. Among their many, many outrageous actions, is a web of laws skirting protections guaranteed under our Constitution and establishing a system of debtors' prisons. Of course, no elected official actually refers to them as that... I suggest reading a report published by the ACLU entitled: "In for a Penny: The Rise of America's New Debtor's Prisons" (d)
Outrageous? Yes! Remember, hundreds of years ago, nameless poor people shed blood in our Revolutionary War and endured unspeakable hardships through indentured servitude to escape the debtors' prisons of Europe. To what end, I ask? So history can come full circle allowing that injustice to run rampant today at the hands of out of control, rich, apathetic elected officials? The fact that it is happening now in America makes the likelihood of a civil war in our future a reality I never thought possible...
(a) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57577994/as-economy-flails-debtors-prisons-thrive/
(b) https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/courts-should-stop-jailing-people-being-poor
(c) http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17939-debtors-prisons-once-a-19th-century-relic-again-wreaking-havoc-in-us
(d) http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17939-debtors-prisons-once-a-19th-century-relic-again-wreaking-havoc-in-us
