General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAn Arkansas Judge Sent A Cancer Patient To ‘Debtors’ Prison’ Over A Few Bounced Checks
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/debtors-prison-arkansas_us_57bdd1b8e4b0c6301ca0e56cPlease read this incredible story about putting people in jail for a few bounced checks. Story was also in
Latest Breaking News at the link below... posted there by ... megahertz
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141558448
_____________________________________________________________________________________
the story: "An Arkansas Judge Sent A Cancer Patient To Debtors Prison Over A Few Bounced Checks"
Source: Huffington Post: 08/24/2016 05:52 pm ET
Ryan J Reilly
Senior Justice Reporter, The Huffington Post
WASHINGTON ― Lee Robertsons trouble began in late 2009, when he was undergoing his first stint of chemotherapy to battle the pancreatic cancer that had made it impossible for him to work. In the course of two weeks, Robertson wrote 11 checks at stores near his home for small amounts ranging from $5 to $41.
Robertson started off owing a few stores about $200. Six years and seven arrests later, in a closed courtroom in Sherwood District Court in Arkansas, Judge Milas Butch Hale sentenced the cancer patient to 90 days in jail. His crime? Owing the court $3,054.51.
That was last month. Robertson, 44, is now one of the plaintiffs in a class action federal civil rights lawsuit filed this week by the Arkansas Civil Liberties Union and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The suit aims to take on what has been described as a modern-day debtors prison in the city of Sherwood. Similar practices exist in courts around the country, including in several cities in St. Louis County, which received attention for their debt collection practices following the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, two years ago. Groups like Equal Justice Under Law, ArchCity Defenders, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the American Civil Liberties Union have been mounting challenges to unconstitutional court practices in many parts of the nation.
In Sherwood, the Hot Check Division of the municipal court is drawing scrutiny. While the division is supposed to be part of the municipal court, the city has marketed the division to the business community in Pulaski County, according to the lawsuit. Sherwood lists the division as a department on its website, and calls the courts work a service for merchants ― one that issues over 35,000 warrants annually on charges in connection with bad checks. The court collected nearly $12 million in five years.
_____________________________________________________________________________
This is clearly one of the ugliest and heartbreaking stories that I have ever read about judicial incompetence. I hope this goes national (it already has in a few places)..and the powers that be get this asshole judge and those leaders that condone and profit from this. Awful beyond words..
different equation
(69 posts)Laurian
(2,593 posts)pay their fair share of taxes, states finance their existence on the backs of the poor. Middle class folks are likely helping to foot that bill, but they somehow come up with the money to pay the fines rather than go to jail.
The system sucks.
Stuart G
(38,434 posts)Clearly this is allowed to exist in some states.. Just wondering??
I thought that these kind of sentences..(putting people in jail for owing money) were illegal in the United States..
EL34x4
(2,003 posts)And writing bad checks is known as check fraud.
Laurian
(2,593 posts)that continue to mount and make compliance impossible is absurd. Did you see the amount of money that town accrued from this process? That's more criminal than a bounced check.
Reminds me of Ferguson supporting the town with traffic tickets and fines.
Response to Stuart G (Original post)
Post removed
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Yet it doesn't absolve one of desperation brought on by a coercive system. I imagine it simply depends on whether we wish a fully accessible healthcare system, or simply enjoy pointing our little pink, self-validating fingers at others in petulant blame.
One seems constructive. The other seems... less than adult.
linuxman
(2,337 posts)To what extent is committing fraud justifiable, given an illness in the person committing the fraud?
Ilsa
(61,695 posts)Is all of the chargeback fees, bank fees, then legal fines that get thrown on top of it. A $10 check that could throw the account into overdraft by $1 can create this. How is that right?
annabanana
(52,791 posts)if they were starving
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)linuxman
(2,337 posts)kcr
(15,317 posts)For some people anyway.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)situations are happening in every corner of our Country. With the stupid high deductibles in some states ACA programs and Private Insurers in certain states refusing to pay for certain meds. People rationalize thoughts and ideas when pain and pain management hits and there isn't funds to pay for it. Seen this first hand in a very impoverish area of North Western Wisconsin. And it is only getting worse. Qualifying for any State program for those who are unemployed because of illness,is next to impossible. And if you have any assets left,you need to dispose of them before you are even considered. Alan Grayson was right,the Republican Party's Health Care Program is,die first and then you can save money.