Debtors' Prisons open for business in the U.S.A.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

Let's start with the privatization of the prison system. Many a story has been written on the subject.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/opinion/krugman-prisons-privatization-patronage.html?_r=0
http://www.correctionsproject.com/corrections/pris_priv.htm
Even United Church of Christ has done an article, http://www.ucc.org/justice/criminal-justice/prison-industrial-complex-1.html

Now, as we all know, a businesses job is to do a much business as possible. That means they need more "product". So how can a business that need more criminals get this product? Enter the Debtors' Prison!


On October 4, 2010, the ACLU released a report titled "In For a Penny: The Rise of America's New Debtors' Prisons" http://www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights-racial-justice/penny-rise-americas-new-debtors-prisons .And Some scoffed at it.

Incarcerating people simply because they cannot afford to pay their legal debts not only is unconstitutional but it has a devastating impact upon men and women, whose only crime is that they are poor. The sad truth is that debtors' prisons are flourishing today, more than two decades after the Supreme Court prohibited imprisoning those who are too poor to pay their legal debts.

Now, April 4, 2013, CBS Moneywatch has released a report titled "As economy flails, debtors' prisons thrive" http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57577994/as-economy-flails-debtors-prisons-thrive/

Thousands of Americans are sent to jail not for committing a crime, but because they can't afford to pay for traffic tickets, medical bills and court fees.

If that sounds like a debtors' prison, a legal relic which was abolished in this country in the 1830s, that's because it is. And courts and judges in states across the land are violating the Constitution by incarcerating people for being unable to pay such debts

So what does this mean for so many that have found themselves in debt? It means that people who have been on the right side of the law is now criminals. They will have a record.

Don't think this is right? Please contact your local, state, and Federal Reps and let them know!