Imprisoned for debt in America

[Hannah Bell]

People are being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts in the United States, despite the fact that federal imprisonment for debt was abolished in 1933.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has documented such arrests, essentially for poverty, increasing throughout the United States. During the last four years, the use of arrest warrants against debtors in Minnesota has jumped by 60 percent, to 845 cases in 2009. The exposé showed that sometimes the unpaid bills were as low as $85.

The mechanism used to extract payment from the impoverished is the bench warrant. Workers are not actually incarcerated for debt, but for failing to respond to the legal system. However, the perpetrators of the court filings, the debt buyers and their legal representatives, are transparently using the system to intimidate, harass and frighten individuals into payments, sometimes for debts they do not even owe.

“In Illinois and southwest Indiana, some judges jail debtors for missing court-ordered debt payments. In extreme cases,” the Star-Tribune reports, “people stay in jail until they raise a minimum payment. In January, a judge sentenced a Kenney, Illinois, man to ‘indefinite incarceration’ until came up with $300 towards a lumber yard debt.” The self-employed roofer had broken his neck and back and filed for disability. After three hours in a holding cell, his wife got him released by borrowing $300 on a credit card...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/debt-j16.shtml

[leftstreet]

1. K&R The Predator Class gets to use the court system to collect their profits

:puke:

What a deal

[grasswire]

2. and the taxpayers pay several thousands of dollars per month to...

...hold the debtor in custody. That sure makes sense, eh? And the trauma to the debtor's family? Family values!

[Hoopla Phil]

3. K and R! This practice should be illegal!

[Umbral]

4. We all knew it was coming. nt

[Faux pas]

5. Gag!

[Obamanaut]

6. Much discussion on a similar earlier thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8581015

[melm00se]

7. removing debt from the equation for a second

is it OK for someone to ignore a court order?

Miss a traffic court date? bench warrant
Write a hot check? warrant
disrespect the court? contempt and in you go

I have an example from a prior life of one exactly like the one in the OP:

We were getting an order of replevin for a car hidden on the debtors property (he never made 1 payment on a $50,000 car), we filed the paperwork with the court, he showed up, the judge ordered him to turnover the car, he told the judge to go and self inseminate himself and BAM! he ended up in the clink. So you can make the case that the guy was thrown in jail for being in debt but in reality it was for being a rude jackass to the court (and refusing to comply with a lawful court order)

[Zorra]

8. If republicans retake control, half the people in this country

could wind up in jail for unpaid debt.

Suppose republicans retake control of the government.

Republicans represent the rich and industry owners. Over the past 30 years, we have repeatedly seen republicans do everything they possibly could to grind working people under their bootheels while giving corporations more and more power. Debt buyers and their legal representatives could form a powerful lobby, influencing republican legislators to pass stricter laws regarding the payment of debts, and make it much easier for debt buyers to use the legal system as a low cost "weapon" for collecting debt.

We seriously need to put a stop to this before it goes any further.