http://www.startribune.com/...
When, I was but a boy, I remember reading victorian literature like Dickens and the like. I was caught by how cruel society seemed back then. Public hangings, public humilations, orphanages and the like. These seemed to me to be rather callous and vindictive.
One of the most ridiculous ideas was the concept of debtors prison. Someone cannot pay, so you take them away from society , put them in jail, stigmatize them and make sure that they have no way of redeeming themselves. It seemed stupid, counterproductive and definately unjust.
I would take some comfort in the thought that we were much more enlightened now. Well, guess what, I was wrong.
It seems that the police can arrest you for no other crime than being broke. There was an eye openning article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about this.
Link:
http://www.startribune.com/...
I would love to just post the whole thing here but, that is not kosher. (For very good reasons, I might add.) Instead, I would encourage you to read the whole story yourself at the link above.
I will throw in some quotes that I think are poignant.
It's not a crime to owe money, and debtors' prisons were abolished in the United States in the 19th century. But people are routinely being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years, with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has found.
Not every warrant results in an arrest, but in Minnesota many debtors spend up to 48 hours in cells with criminals. Consumer attorneys say such arrests are increasing in many states, including Arkansas, Arizona and Washington, driven by a bad economy, high consumer debt and a growing industry that buys bad debts and employs every means available to collect.
"The law enforcement system has unwittingly become a tool of the debt collectors," said Michael Kinkley, an attorney in Spokane, Wash., who has represented arrested debtors. "The debt collectors are abusing the system and intimidating people, and law enforcement is going along with it."
How often are debtors arrested across the country? No one can say. No national statistics are kept, and the practice is largely unnoticed outside legal circles. "My suspicion is the debt collection industry does not want the world to know these arrests are happening, because the practice would be widely condemned," said Robert Hobbs, deputy director of the National Consumer Law Center in Boston.
In Minnesota, judges have issued arrest warrants for people who owe as little as $85 -- less than half the cost of housing an inmate overnight.
Deputies showed up at his house one evening while he was playing with his 5-year-old daughter, Nicole.
"No little girl should have to see her daddy arrested," said Rodriguez, who spent a night in jail.
The Star Tribune's comparison of warrant and booking data suggests that at least 1 in 6 Minnesota debtors at risk for arrest actually lands in jail, typically for eight hours.
Keep in mind this in a progressive state. What would these numbers look like for a less progressive state?
Haekyung Nielsen, 27, of Bloomington, said police showed up at her house on a civil warrant two weeks after she gave birth through Caesarean section.
Her baby boy, Tyler, lay in the crib as she begged the officer not to take her away.
If memory servers me right was there not some deal called the Bill of Rights that had a silly, little, thing called the 8th amendment? Wasn't there something about "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." ?
http://topics.law.cornell.edu/...
Oh well, that was written so long ago and is so 18th century. So passe, I am not sure that we do that anymore. I know am old and need to get with the program. Justice is not an imperative anymore it is a commodity. Silly me.
Great, I say then maybe we could apply this standard to some of those that owe me as a taxpayer money. I would love to serve the arrest warrants on Haliburton, BP, those Bankers who took the bailout and a whole bunch of others. Hell, if saving money and time is an issue just deputize me. I will serve those warrants for free. We could save the law enforcement community some money here. Hell, I would even pay good money if I had the chance to tase a CEO if they got out of line.
In all seriousness, I hope that those in Kossland will pay attention to this issue in your own communities. The poor are getting crapped on and some strong community organizing could be built around this issue.