Out of Debtors’ Prison, With Law as the Key

[phantom power]

When Jack Dawley returned in 2007 to his hometown, Norwalk, Ohio, after eight years in prison and on parole in Wisconsin, he knew getting by would be difficult. He had a felony conviction and a history of past drug and alcohol abuse, although he’d been sober since 1999. He was unprepared for another obstacle, however: A few years later, he would keep landing in debtors’ prison.

Dawley did all right at first. For four years, he worked construction jobs and paid down the $1,400 in fines and court fees he owed the municipal court in Norwalk for domestic violence and D.U.I. convictions during his drunken years. But in 2012, he injured his back, lost his job and missed a payment on his court debt.

He was arrested and sentenced to jail for 10 days. When he got out, he had 90 days to make a payment. He failed, and went back to jail. A cycle was beginning: jail every 90 days.

Later in 2012, he took a job as a cashier. He was on his way to cash his first paycheck when he was pulled over and arrested, again for an infraction stemming from his debt. Back in jail, he missed eight days of work. When he got out, his job was gone. He stayed out of jail, but was homeless for the next two years.

Although the United States outlawed debtors’ prison two centuries ago, that, in effect, is where Dawley kept going.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/27/shutting-modern-debtors-prisons/

[Trillo]

1. Another very big issue.

Cannot help but wonder if big bankers' money to politicians' election campaigns has contributed over the long term. We DO live in a police state, have since I was a kid in the 1960s, and our cops HAVE great bias against the poor. And being poor and African American is often a death sentence without due process.

Seems to have the bankers' fingerprints. Money.