Ohio is Illegally Throwing People in Jail for Oweing Money

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Stuart G (7,444 posts)

Report: Ohio is Illegally Throwing People in Jail for Oweing Money: Think Progress


 
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/05/1829601/ohio-debtors-prison/

Think Progress:

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Apr 5, 2013 at 5:30 pm


The Americans Civil Liberties Union on Friday revealed that courts in Ohio are illegally throwing poor people in jail for being unable to pay off a debt.

In a report titled, “The Outskirts of Hope,” (PDF) the ACLU shines a light on a harrowing “debtors’ prison” system in Ohio — one that violates both the United States’ and the Ohio constitution. Ohioans are being jailed for “as small as a few hundred dollars,” despite the constitutional violation, and the economic evidence that it costs the state more to pay for their jail sentence than the amount of the debt.

In its report, the ACLU details the stories of several people sent to debtors’ prison. Jack Dawley owed $1,500 in “fines and costs in the Norwalk Municipal Court,” and was behind on child support payments, leading the Ohio courts to send him to prison in Wisconsin for 3 and a half years. He still struggles with trying to repay the fines. Another victim of the system, single mother Tricia Metcalf, was taken to jail each and every time she wasn’t able to make her $50-a-month payments on fines for writing bad checks.[ Megan Sharp, whose husband is currently in jail on overdue fines, was unable to pay $300 in fines for driving on a suspended license and went to jail for 10 days. When she got out, she owed $200 more on top of the original amount. Both she and her husband are unemployed.
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http://election.democraticunderground.com/10022629110

So people are going to jail for not paying child support, not paying fines for bad checks, and driving on a suspended license.
As far as I know all of that has gotten people thrown in jail for as long as I can remember, now all of a sudden it is "illegal". 

ananda (12,257 posts)
3. Where is the ACLU?

Must have just read the title. 

The people listed in the article all played stupid games and are upset that they won stupid prizes, and the DUmmies hearts bleed for them.
If you don't want to be thrown in jail for not paying your fines, don't do things that are illegal and punishable with fines.

[JohnnyReb]

NOTICE something about that: It's government debts that are sending them to prison, not private debt. There are a few people that owe me that I'd like to send to prison.....and they owe me a lot more than these people owe the government.

[dane]

Here's a dude just asking for trouble.

Response to Stuart G (Reply #2)
Sun Apr 7, 2013, 11:10 AM
 YarnAddict (35 posts)
6. This isn't about corporations it's the govt. Fines, back child support, etc. I think there have always been jail sentence involved for not paying that sort of thing.

[miskie]

None of these are debts owed to private business, they are all debts to government entities.

[RobJohnson]

WOW, breaking news! If you don't pay a court ordered fine, you go to jail.