I just have to write and agree with last week's Editorial Roundup writer Wyatt Emmerich concerning our 'debtors ' prisons'.
Perhaps you didn't have a chance to read the article but the main bits are that we have a very large number of folks in our jails and prisons for 'failure to pay fines'. Our state has HB 387 and I'd like to support it as well. Basically it prevents the immediate incarceration of MS folk for the non-payment of fines.
Key to this is: “Incarceration may be employed only after the court had conducted a hearing and examined the reasons for non-payment and fines, on the record, that the defendant was not indigent or could have made the payment but refused to do so.” Indigent Emmerich tells us means income less that 125% of the federal poverty level and lacks more than $10,000 in assets (car, clothing etc.). He reminds us that the bill has passed the House and is now going to the Senate and the Governor. This is no way to increase government funds and we see the growth in the prison industry.
The poor are most likely to get caught up in this because as we know the initial fine will have another fine attached to it through various sorts of interest. One thing leads to another and soon the original fine has almost disappeared and the person is overwhelmed with debt. I don't think, on the other hand, that no recompense at all should be paid. Often folks who are very low-income get trapped in various money-lending schemes not knowing all the fine details. We see this with credit cards...average family between $10-25,000 in debt they say. What?
Our call to just system is well known. The fact that folks need to repay what they have either been fined or borrowed is an ideal. Clearly jail is not the place for folks when they often have a small but income-producing job to feed the family. Equally, jail is for violent offenders...folks we want off the streets. The fact that someone has not paid parking tickets, hardly measures up!
Emmerich also offered this info: MS Department of Safety settled a lawsuit and announced the “ end of automatically suspending drivers' licenses for failure to pay court-ordered non-driving fines.” This returned over 100,000 MS drivers to their licenses! How shall we treat one another? A whole lot better. PRAY FOR OUR DEPARTING TROOPS! BLESSINGS.
