Tuesday, April 14, 2009
DEBTORS' PRISONS ARE BEING CREATED THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES: "IF WE DON'T GET TECHNICAL"
In Pinched Courts Push to Collect Fees and Fines the reporter writes:
The reporter notes that "Constitutional law forbids jailing people solely over fees and fines they cannot pay, but Florida officials argue that, technically, they are jailing people because they violated court orders" (emphasis added).Since 2004, the [Florida] Legislature has required courts to support their operating expenses substantially, through fees collected by county clerks. Some of the clerks use collection agents, while about a third use the Collections Courts, state officials said. Here in Leon County alone, 839 people were arrested and jailed in the year ended last September over court debts or failure to appear at Collections Court, according to a study by the Brennan Center. Other Florida counties have less stringent policies.Around Leon County, there are some 5,400 outstanding “blue writs” — the civil equivalent of an arrest warrant for failing to appear and pay fees. Some people come in and pay when they receive their summons; others spend a night or more in jail, often having been arrested when the writ pops up during incidents like routine traffic stops.
So "technically speaking," those who are incarcerated as a result of their inability to meet their child support obligations, are not serving time in Debtors' Prison, but are serving time "because they violated court orders." However, if we do not both get technical and willingly suspend both disbelief and common sense, we have to admit that our county jails are fast becoming Debtors' Prisons. Pay the debt buddy and you can go home.
Labels: Sixth Amendment, User Fees/Hidden Taxes
Comments:
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Locking people up is tough, but tens of thousands of children in South Carolina would be eating out of trash cans if we didn't collect child support that way. When they cut back on Welfare, that was coordinated with a massive increase in the effort to collect child support. One clear problem is that non custodial parents don't have proportional government assistance in getting visitation and contact with their children.
William Hamilton, www.wjhamilton.com
William Hamilton, www.wjhamilton.com
# posted by 
: 11:40 AM
: 11:40 AM
We agree with the general proposition that the coercive powers of Civil Contempt can help reduce the total child support arrearage. But, considering the number of fathers in jail in South Carolina for "child support issues" and considering the further fact that the total arrearage is increasing, we have to conclude that at least some portion of the men in jail for nonsupport are there because they cannot pay, not because they will not pay. And we also must conclude that if they could afford attorneys that they would be less likely to be in jail.
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