Sunday, June 9, 2013

Debtors Prison in the United States? Unfairly Treated Poor People?

The use of debtors prison  in five states, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Georgia and Washington and their widespread practice of jailing people for debt  has gotten the A.C.L.U. attention.

debtors-prison
  Breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars. She didn't pay a medical bill -- one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn't owe. "She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn't have to pay it,"  "But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in handcuffs."

Some states also apply "poverty penalties," including late fees, payment plan fees, and interest when people are unable to pay all their debts at once, according to a report by the New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. Alabama charges a 30 percent collection fee, for instance, while Florida allows private debt collectors to add a 40 percent surcharge on the original debt. Some Florida counties also use so-called collection courts, where debtors can be jailed but have no right to a public defender.

Unpaid Rent Can Get You Thrown in Prison in Arkansas

Unless you come from a family so rich and so uninterested in your character development that they pay your bills for you, you've been short on your rent at least once in your life.
According to the failure-to-vacate law, once you're late on your rent, landlords can give you 10 days to pay up, move out, or go to jail. And it's written so that there is no independent investigation to find out if the landlord is telling the truth or if he's looking to fill your apartment with his buddy's hot daughter. So naturally the system is abused to the point where actual homeowners have been somehow charged with not paying their rent.

Wisconsin Wants to Freeze the Bank Accounts of Unemployed People

If some legislators in Wisconsin get their way, the state will have the right not only to monitor your personal banking account if you accept unemployment, but also to freeze your funds if they goof up in your payments.

Tennessee Tries to Make Welfare Dependent on Kids' Grades

Tennessee State Senator Stacey Campfield proposed a law that would've made poor families' welfare benefits dependent on their child's grades, presumably because he doesn't know anything about education, poverty, or the link between the two. Under Campfield's proposed bill, families on welfare would lose up to 30 percent of their benefits if their kids didn't make "satisfactory progress" at school.

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