Debtors’ Prisons Make a Come Back…Sorta

“Can I go to jail for not paying my debts?”  I get this question all the time.  And my answer has always been “no”.  There are a lot of other terrible things than can happen but jail is typically not one of them…until now.  I came across an interesting New York Times editorial  about how more and more people are being sent to jail when they can’t pay their debts.

This seems strange because debtor’s prisons were outlawed in 1833.  Further, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that you can’t be put in jail if you can’t pay a speeding ticket or some other low-level fine.

I have never really understood the idea of throwing people in jail that don’t pay their debts.  I suppose that I have always approached the debt collection game as one where the winner gets paid.  If you are sitting in jail and unable to work, it would make one believe that extracting any further payments is highly unlikely.  But I guess in times past (and apparently times present) there are some who consider inflicting pain on the debtor as some type of moral victory.  Punishment.  If you can’t pay me, then I will get my pound of flesh one way or the other.

Recession = Debtors’ Prison?

So how exactly are debtors’ prisons making a comeback?  It seems that in these times of unending-recession that state court systems are lacking some serious revenue.  Without money they can’t operate, so they do what any business does – find more ways to get dollars in the door.  This has resulted in courts assessing additional and new fines and fees to those convicted of misdemeanor crimes.  When the offender cannot pay more often they are finding themselves thrown in the slammer.

Additionally, the New York Times reports that many courts are outsourcing the collection of the fines and fees, resulting in another layer of costs and making it all the more unlikely that payment is going to be made. After all, if you can’t pay $200 what makes them think you can now pay $1,000?

In a separate article by Ethan Bronner of the New York Times, he recounts the story of Gina Ray.  Ms. Ray was unemployed and received a speeding ticket for $179.  She failed to appear to take care of the ticket and had her license suspended. Then, as a consequence,  the next time  she was pulled over she was driving without a license.  By this time her fees were over $1,500.  She couldn’t pay, was jailed, and the fees ballooned.  When it was all said and done she ended up spending 40 days in jail and owes over $3,000 to the collection agency hired by the court to collect the fine.  All over a $179 speeding ticket.

The retort, if not the lesson, to this situation, is for Ms. Ray to pay the ticket before things got out of control.  But that ignores the underlying problems.  The courts are not meant to be revenue-creating machines, and two, the result of this type of aggressive debt collection is that people are in reality being jailed for their inability to pay their debts – something we all thought was outlawed long ago.