#debtor's prison

[midnightfunk]

Patients jailed over unpaid medical debt in this Kansas county

'You wouldn’t think you’d go to jail over medical bills'

[entitledrichpeople]

Judge, top prosecutor engage in shouting match over jailing of pregnant woman

A longtime Cook County judge and a top prosecutor repeatedly shouted at each other Monday at a tense hearing over whether a pregnant woman should have been

"Mr. Sussman, this is simple," Ford [the judge] said.

"No, it's not," Sussman [the prosecutor] interjected, his voice raised, and the two again began to shout over each other.

"She had to give birth to her daughter in jail!" said Sussman, noting that Padilla couldn't afford to pay restitution or fees as she was ordered. "This is not a debtor's prison you're running, your honor ... and you illegally sentenced her to jail."

[venusinorbit]

Think Trump's immigration plan is extreme? Check out this House Republican bill.

It would treat low-income Dreamers as criminals.

In his State of the Union address last week, President Donald Trump called for a “down-the-middle compromise” on immigration. Of course, Democrats don’t see his proposal that way, with its funding for a border wall and sharp cuts to family migration. But right-wing immigration groups don’t like it either, and they quickly attacked it as amnesty for Dreamers—undocumented immigrants who came to United States as children. That raises a question as Congress weighs Trump’s immigration plan: What exactly would satisfy hardliners?

The answer looks something like the Securing America’s Future Act, a 414-page Republican bill that covers almost every area of immigration policy. Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (R-Va.) legislation, which has attracted 82 Republican co-sponsors, would treat Dreamers as criminals if they fall into poverty, and would deny Dreamers a direct path to citizenship.

[chrystalyxpoetryportal]

debt paid

[sataniccapitalist]

Debtors’ prisons: From illegal to modern and commonplace

Published on Sep 22, 2016

Even the most basic history lesson, for many students in the western world, includes what used to be referred to as “debtors’ prisons,” the legal process of taking destitute persons unable to pay their debts and sentencing them to prison terms until they could work off their debt with their labor. Even though it was done away with long ago, communities around the United States are witnessing a modernized version of the practice. Mathew Cooke, sitting in for Larry King, breaks down the phenomenon, speaking with Thomas Harvey, executive director of Arch City Defenders, who is suing over the practice’s use in 13 Missouri municipalities via a class action lawsuit. Find RT America in your area: http://rt.com/where-to-watch/ Or watch us online: http://rt.com/on-air/rt-america-air/ Like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/RTAmerica Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/RT_America

[alwaysspringers]

Bet most of you didn't know the penalty for not paying #court+fines was #capital+punishment! *** Cops Arrest Sick Woman in the Hospital for Unpaid Fines, Put Her in Jail & Dehydrate Her to Death. ***

[bostonreview]

“But like so many American institutions, debt forgiveness—and the social mobility it enabled—applied almost exclusively to native-born white men. Nonwhite populations faced land divestment, chattel slavery, and disproportionate incarceration, followed by a subsequent regime of debt peonage and forced labor.” Read the full essay.