The Return of Debtor's Prisons--Jailed for $280 Dollars

Jailed for $280: The Return of Debtors' Prisons

How did breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars? She didn't pay a medical bill -- one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn't owe. "She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn't have to pay it," The Associated Press reports. "But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in handcuffs."

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Under the law, debtors aren't arrested for nonpayment, but rather for failing to respond to court hearings, pay legal fines, or otherwise showing "contempt of court" in connection with a creditor lawsuit. That loophole has lawmakers in the Illinois House of Representatives concerned enough to pass a bill in March that would make it illegal to send residents of the state to jail if they can't pay a debt. The measure awaits action in the senate.

"Creditors have been manipulating the court system to extract money from the unemployed, veterans, even seniors who rely solely on their benefits to get by each month," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said last month in a statement voicing support for the legislation. "Too many people have been thrown in jail simply because they're too poor to pay their debts. We cannot allow these illegal abuses to continue."

Houston, I think we got a problem!

This stuff is really happening. If you are one of the members of the very poor, there are endless fines, fees, and more, that if you fail to pay, you will be punished simply for being too poor to pay up. The bankers and their attached parasites like junk debt buyers, do not care if you are penniless, they will still drag you to court anyhow. Which makes no sense but then they are allowed by the laws they probably helped to write to count those debts [many which they will never collect] as assets.  Insane? Sure it is, but we are not living in a fair and just system anymore.

Another thing that happens to people too, is they get tickets and fines, they simply cannot pay, or insurance they lapse on and the bench warrants, courts and more fines and fees await. So yes there are deadbeats out there, but plenty are being scooped up who simply CANNOT AFFORD TO PAY. Have you ever wondered why they add on penalties to people already burdened and unable to pay certain bills? Seems to make no sense does it? It's like their lust for punishment and to kick people when they are down supersedes even common sense.