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Title: Ohio Is Illegally Throwing Poor People in Jail For Owing Money
Source:
alternet.org
URL Source: http://www.alternet.org/hard-times- ... g-poor-people-jail-owing-money
Published: Apr 7, 2013
Author: Annie-Rose Strasser comments_image 39 CO
Post Date: 2013-04-07 16:34:58 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 9796
Comments: 26
A new report shines a light on a harrowing “debtors’ prison” system in Ohio — one that violates both the United States’ and the Ohio constitution. April 6, 2013 | The Americans Civil Liberties Union on Friday revealed that courts in Ohio are illegally throwing poor people in jail for being unable to pay off a debt. In a report titled, “ The Outskirts of Hope,” (PDF) the ACLU shines a light on a harrowing “debtors’ prison” system in Ohio — one that violates both the United States’ and the Ohio constitution. Ohioans are being jailed for “as small as a few hundred dollars,” despite the constitutional violation, and the economic evidence that it costs the state more to pay for their jail sentence than the amount of the debt. In its report, the ACLU details the stories of several people sent to debtors’ prison. Jack Dawley owed $1,500 in “fines and costs in the Norwalk Municipal Court,” and was behind on child support payments, leading the Ohio courts to send him to prison in Wisconsin for 3 and a half years. He still struggles with trying to repay the fines. Another victim of the system, single mother Tricia Metcalf, was taken to jail each and every time she wasn’t able to make her $50-a-month payments on fines for writing bad checks. Megan Sharp, whose husband is currently in jail on overdue fines, was unable to pay $300 in fines for driving on a suspended license and went to jail for 10 days. When she got out, she owed $200 more on top of the original amount. Both she and her husband are unemployed. The AP has a round up of the charges that the ACLU levels against Ohio, writ large: — In suburban Cleveland, Parma Municipal Court jailed at least 45 defendants for failure to pay fines and costs between July 15 and August 31, 2012. — During the same period, Sandusky Municipal Court jailed at least 75 people for similar charges. Court officials have pledged to look into the accusations. In 2011, ThinkProgress reported on how the deep recession and loss of employment had led to a return of debtor’s prisons. People were reportedly put in jail for something as small as missing a single furniture payment.
— In the second half of last year, more than one in every five of all bookings in the Huron County jail — originating from Norwalk Municipal Court cases — involved a failure to pay fines.
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#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
I hate the Ohio government as much as anyone. But is not paying fines after being found guilty the same as debtors prison. I don't think so. They put you in jail in every state if you don't pay fines.
Not in this state. I have not paid a fine in decades and they just go to collection. Even the ones that involved a traffic accident with was my fault (fender bender) where I was suspended dissappeared after a while and I got my license back. It works differently in Oreon than it does there from what I see in that article.
Why don't you pay?
. He thinks he's above the law.
I was unemployed and only doing activist work in the forest and concerning urban trees. I also rely on my bicycle more than I do driving a car even now in this time I work full time. I expected my license to remain suspended until I paid up, but after several years I got a letter telling me I could reapply for and get it again so I did. I owe a fine for possession for a cannabis pipe, many traffic tickets, activist related trespassing, and several other things. None of them above the infraction level of offense. From what I see I would do time in Ohio were I to live there. I'm glad I live here instead.
I don't. Which is why I do not go out and shoplift or rob banks. Hey, if you don't have the money for a fine, you don't have the money. Wasting money locking me up won't magically but money in my pocket. I don't worry about my credit rating because I've never had a credit card, and do not use banks. I just do a credit union, and that is only because electronic money has become a bigger thing. I am a very off the grid person in many ways; and have always been very counterculture in outlook and practice.
Translation: I'm deadbeat and proud of it.
He googles stories about Ohio to try and rile me up. lol
Actually I ran across it on Twitter and posted it in 4UM, tweeted it to The People's Forum and posted it here. I wouldn't have posted it here except I like to hear an Ohioan's opinion on Ohio stories. I also put a link to it in a post at a thread on Democratic Underground. I post far fewer stories here than elsewhere because you work at trying to rile me up instead of responding like a human being most the time. So why should I continually reward bad behavior?
Actually it is what it is, a good personal example to make a point in a thread. I have also been to jail four days when my wallet was stolen and someone used my ID. And I was a day late getting back to Washington State and missed getting refunded my towing fee, thought they did recognize their error and release me dismissing the false charges after ruining a New Year's Day weekend of mine. As with any dealing with authority, it's a mixed bag of things you end up dealing with. like the charge for the pipe, I had a University of Oregon public safety officer hot to get me whenever he saw me on campus and would call to check wants and warrants to try to get me. He finally found a failure to appear on a tresspassing in the forst charge and had EPD search me. Randy Ellis, the EPD cop who is also a friend of mine originally was going to just take the pipe but this guy wanted to write a letter of trepass (LOT) on me so he wrote me a ticket as a University Public Safety Office and gave me a LOT which was later lifted as I am an Alumnus there and never cause trouble on campus. That is just an example of where they have done wrong or got over zealous. I can't argue I souldn't have paid where at the time I didn't have the means to, but it is what it is. Call it what you want, I'm jusy using a personal example that shows not all states handle unpaid fines like Ohio.
MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SO. If you got the keys to the treasury and enough $$$, Get out of Free Jail Card is yours.....;} So many corporate-owned politicians in Washington these days seem to be going out of their way to work side by side with the Grim Reaper. They declare unnecessary wars. They tax us (not themselves) right down to the bone. They steal all our safety nets in order to have more money to add to THEIR safety nets. They bust our unions, steal our pension plans, enable Wall Street to invent pyramid schemes that ruin our economy, encourage big health insurance companies to cut us loose just when we need them the most, and allow Monsanto to poison our food, mutilate our seed stock and kill off our bees. In America, death seems to be coming earlier and earlier to those who vote.
Ohio Is Illegally Throwing Poor People in Jail For Owing Money | Alternet http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/ohio-illegally-throwing-poor-people-jail-owing-money … Have To Keep Prisons For Profit Full... Retweeted by the-peoples-forum Expand Follow @dennisdesmond19 and you can see the tweet yourself instead of just looking at this cut and paste of Robin's re-tweet of this.
The Democratic Underground thread on this.
How true...
I think we all feel that way.
. It's a fair tactic.
. Works both ways. Glad you aren't here.
I think we'd have a beer. Though, it looks like I'd have to buy.
. Won't work; I don't drink anything alcoholic. Currently coffee is my one vice.
A local roaster here is roasting up a fine Columbian Supreme. I get it fresh within a day or so of roasting. It's turned me into quite the coffee snob and now I'm roasting my own a bit. Better than a beer.
. I agree. I love fresh roasted coffee. A fried of mine roasts coffee and sells it in several local stores. I'm lucky I can buy from him direct. When I went back to school a few years ago I developed barista skills working a work study job at the expresso counter in the dining area of lane Community college. I am a fiend for fine coffee now.
It doesn't bother me. Just noting it.
Though, it looks like I'd have to buy. I'd drink a beer with Mike. Or even a coffee I guess. It would be interesting. I would even be nice.
Ya, me too.
. Nothing is better than a beer. Except that one time I had sex with so and so. She was hot!
"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."
#2. To: A K A Stone (#1)
"They put you in jail in every state if you don't pay fines."
#3. To: Ferret Mike (#2)
Say hi to your mom for me.
#4. To: Biff Tannen (#3)
Why don't you pay?
"we must as a species go into a period of shrinkage that we have not experienced since the Dark Ages and the Black Plague" -- lucysmom
#5. To: Biff Tannen (#3)
#6. To: jwpegler (#4)
(Edited)
"He thinks he's above the law."
#7. To: Ferret Mike, All (#6)
I am a very off the grid person in many ways; and have always been very counterculture in outlook and practice.
#8. To: Biff Tannen (#3)
#9. To: A K A Stone (#8)
(Edited)
"He googles stories about Ohio to try and rile me up."
#10. To: Thunderbird (#7)
(Edited)
"Translation: I'm deadbeat and proud of it."
#11. To: A K A Stone (#1)
They put you in jail in every state if you don't pay fines.
#12. To: A K A Stone (#8)
(Edited)
Dennis Desmond @dennisdesmond19 12h
#13. To: A K A Stone (#8)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014447484
#14. To: Ferret Mike (#5)
and only doing activist work
#15. To: Ferret Mike (#5)
I'm glad I live here instead.
Say hi to your mom for me.
#16. To: A K A Stone (#8)
He googles stories about Ohio to try and rile me up.
Say hi to your mom for me.
#17. To: Biff Tannen (#15)
"I think we all feel that way."
#18. To: Ferret Mike (#17)
Say hi to your mom for me.
#19. To: Biff Tannen (#18)
(Edited)
#20. To: Ferret Mike (#19)
Say hi to your mom for me.
#21. To: Biff Tannen (#20)
#22. To: Biff Tannen (#16)
It's a fair tactic.
#23. To: Biff Tannen (#18)
I think we'd have a beer.
#24. To: A K A Stone (#23)
Say hi to your mom for me.
#25. To: Biff Tannen (#20)
Better than a beer.
#26. To: A K A Stone (#23)
I would even be nice.
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