Justice Dept. Condemns Profit-Minded Court Policies Targeting the Poor

[SecularMotion]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Monday called on state judges across the country to root out unconstitutional policies that have locked poor people in a cycle of fines, debt and jail. It was the Obama administration’s latest effort to take its civil rights agenda to the states, which have become a frontier in the fight over the rights of the poor and the disabled, the transgender and the homeless.

In a letter to chief judges and court administrators, Vanita Gupta, the Justice Department’s top civil rights prosecutor, and Lisa Foster, who leads a program on court access, warned against operating courthouses as for-profit ventures. It chastised judges and court staff members for using arrest warrants as a way to collect fees. Such policies, the letter said, made it more likely that poor people would be arrested, jailed and fined anew — all for being unable to pay in the first place.

It is unusual for the Justice Department to write such a letter. It last did so in 2010, when the department told judges that they were obligated to provide translators for people who could not speak English. The letters do not have the force of law, but they declare the federal government’s position and put local officials on notice about its priorities.

Ms. Gupta said that in some cities, hefty fines served as a sort of bureaucratic cover charge for the right to seek justice. People cannot even start the process of defending themselves until they have settled their debts.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/us/politics/justice-dept-condemns-profit-minded-court-policies-targeting-the-poor.html

[Feeling the Bern]

1. seven years it took his justice department to tackle this. i guess being late to the dance

is better than missing it.

BTW, Barack, how about ending the Justice Department's war on pot and legal pot distributors too?

[Wilms]

3. Cut them some slack.

Do you have any idea the amount of time and effort they expended protecting Wall Street and the previous administration?

[Sunlei]

13. This is the broad DOJ result. It took the DOJ, less then 6 months to rule Fergusons court system,

Unconstitutional. 6 months is still to slow but the locals have to file a case with the Federal government.

The Local/county/state people who are wrongly fined by their Local-Government courts have to file a case with the Federal DOJ.

There are thousands & thousands of small community governments, neighborhood associations, neighborhood police departments who use the court system to slap a mountain of fines on people.

People face jail or community will take/foreclose their home if people can't afford to pay their fines.

[mountain grammy]

2. Finally!!! This situation is out of control

in my little rural neck of the woods. The Trump version of "ruining lives."

[Downwinder]

4. Thank you BLM!

[houston16revival]

5. The Judicial Class is its own Growth Engine

From cradle to grave

death and taxes

protecting your assets so they can gobble them up

[cstanleytech]

6. This is kinda why I would prefer that things like traffic ticket fines be changed across the country

to be something like 1 to 2% of gross income before taxes.

[Calista241]

7. What happens if they can't pay? Do they go to jail?

1% or 2% of gross income could be a hefty sum, for both poor people and rich people. What happens if their assets aren't liquid enough to make an immediate payment?

[cstanleytech]

14. 1% from someone who earns say under $10000 is about $100 bucks where as currently

a speeding ticket averages $150 to $200 so really a % based fine system is more fair to everyone plus there are alternatives they can do such as rather than fining people they could offer to let them do some volunteer work for a few hours in the community.

[blackspade]

8. Commodifying justice.

"Ms. Gupta said that in some cities, hefty fines served as a sort of bureaucratic cover charge for the right to seek justice. People cannot even start the process of defending themselves until they have settled their debts."

Corruption, plain and simple.

[PassingFair]

9. Good. I have seen too many lives bogged down with this cycle of traffic laws and poverty.

People want to know why people run?

Because they can't afford to pay fines and fees and are then criminalized.
One traffic stop can unravel the lives of everyone in the family.
Causes distrust and fear of police.

Shameful situation going on in our country.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Big K&R

[Joe Chi Minh]

11. Those judicial gutter-snipes should, themselves,

be imprisoned, without appeal. There's worse in store for them from the Almighty. '

'Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court. For the LORD will plead their case And take the life of those who rob them.….' - Proverbs 22:22

'Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.' - Proverbs 13:41

[lark]

12. There is no justice for the poor in America.

It's ridiculous all the fees and fines and meetings (you have to pay $30 for each meeting at a minimum) and yet the courts also mandate working. It's all about making the court (state) $$ and further criminalizing the poor. Just having a not great driving record can send you to jail easily. It's a rigged system, almost impossible to get good information from the courts, results in people overpaying by thousands of $$ and makes them lifetime criminals for the crime of not having $$ to pay for a driving ticket(s). They also give no help at all in many places to people with addiction issues. They just put them in jail where drugs are sold like candy and the addiction gets worse. It's a sick, sick, system - especially where there are privatized prisons.