TNHarley
Diamond Member
- Sep 27, 2012
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Lawsuits Target 'Debtors' Prisons' Across the Country
Civil rights lawyers are using a new strategy to change a common court practice that they have long argued unfairly targets the poor.
At issue is the way courts across the country sometimes issue arrest warrants for indigent people when they fall behind on paying court fees and fines owed for minor offenses like traffic tickets. Last year, an NPR investigation showed that courts in all 50 states are requiring more of these payments. Now attorneys are aggressively suing cities, police and courts, forcing reform.
Since September, six lawsuits were filed against New Orleans; Nashville, Tenn.; Biloxi and Jackson, Miss.; Benton County, Wash.; and Alexander City, Ala. In the past year, lawyers have also won settlements that have forced courts to change practices in Montgomery, Ala.; DeKalb County, Ga.; and St. Louis County, Mo.
Biloxi is the latest city to be sued. Nusrat Choudhury, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who filed the lawsuit, charges the city runs an illegal "debtors' prison" when it puts indigent people in jail without adequately trying to determine whether the person has the means to pay court fines and fees or without then offering adequate alternative ways to pay off a fine, like being offered the chance to do community service.
"People like Miss Kennedy," says Choudhury. "A single mom, who is struggling to find work and then loses her job — her part-time cleaning job — when she's jailed for being poor."
Also this week, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a complaint against a judge in Alabama who gave impoverished people who owed court fines a choice: Go to jail or donate blood at the bloodmobile across the street.
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My favorite : "A single mom, who is struggling to find work and then loses her job — her part-time cleaning job — when she's jailed for being poor."
No, asshole. She is being jailed because she couldn't accept her responsibilities for BREAKING THE LAW.
Do people want to be equal or not? This rhetoric is getting REALLY old.
Civil rights lawyers are using a new strategy to change a common court practice that they have long argued unfairly targets the poor.
At issue is the way courts across the country sometimes issue arrest warrants for indigent people when they fall behind on paying court fees and fines owed for minor offenses like traffic tickets. Last year, an NPR investigation showed that courts in all 50 states are requiring more of these payments. Now attorneys are aggressively suing cities, police and courts, forcing reform.
Since September, six lawsuits were filed against New Orleans; Nashville, Tenn.; Biloxi and Jackson, Miss.; Benton County, Wash.; and Alexander City, Ala. In the past year, lawyers have also won settlements that have forced courts to change practices in Montgomery, Ala.; DeKalb County, Ga.; and St. Louis County, Mo.
Biloxi is the latest city to be sued. Nusrat Choudhury, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who filed the lawsuit, charges the city runs an illegal "debtors' prison" when it puts indigent people in jail without adequately trying to determine whether the person has the means to pay court fines and fees or without then offering adequate alternative ways to pay off a fine, like being offered the chance to do community service.
"People like Miss Kennedy," says Choudhury. "A single mom, who is struggling to find work and then loses her job — her part-time cleaning job — when she's jailed for being poor."
Also this week, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a complaint against a judge in Alabama who gave impoverished people who owed court fines a choice: Go to jail or donate blood at the bloodmobile across the street.
----
My favorite : "A single mom, who is struggling to find work and then loses her job — her part-time cleaning job — when she's jailed for being poor."
No, asshole. She is being jailed because she couldn't accept her responsibilities for BREAKING THE LAW.
Do people want to be equal or not? This rhetoric is getting REALLY old.