An Alabama judge has an alternative to paying fines with money: Paying them with blood.
In the courtroom of Judge Marvin Wiggins, a circuit judge in Marion, Alabama, broke defendants can get a $100 credit toward their owed fine by heading to the mobile blood bank parked outside and donating a pint of a blood. A receipt from the blood bank also allows offenders to go home that day.
According to the New York Times, "For those who had no money or did not want to give blood, the judge concluded: 'The sheriff has enough handcuffs.'"
This crude variation on modern-day debtor's prisons violates courtroom principles as well as the general guidelines surrounding blood donation. Many have found this to be a bizarre, invasive, and inappropriate way of managing nonpayment. According to the Times:
On Monday, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed an ethics complaint against Judge Wiggins, saying he had committed “a violation of bodily integrity.” The group also objected to the hearing beyond the matter of blood collection, calling the entire proceeding unconstitutional.
Payment-due hearings like this one are part of a new initiative by Alabama’s struggling courts to raise money by aggressively pursuing outstanding fines, restitution, court costs and lawyer fees. Many of those whose payments are sought in these hearings have been found at one point to be indigent, yet their financial situations often are not considered when they are summoned for outstanding payments.
Such hearings are common not only in Alabama but in other states across the nation, as well. But the blood donation discount is unique.
Carl Crocker, the man who taped the judge discussing the arrangement, was in court because of payment owed. He said that he witnessed an "older man pass out after his blood was taken." He also stated that he felt uncomfortable with the trade that the court was offering.
"Mr. Crocker said he grew even more uncomfortable later, after he recognized the blood bank, LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, which had recently lost a $4 million judgment for an H.I.V.-tainted blood transfusion.
“It’s just wrong for them to utilize people who are in the court system and essentially extort blood out of you because you owe traffic tickets, misdemeanors, felonies, whatever you’re there for,” Mr. Crocker said."
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