Colorado cities jail poor who can't pay fines for minor offenses

[Scuba]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24726701/colorado-cities-jail-poor-who-cant-pay-fines

Courts throughout Colorado are sending impoverished people to jail, not because they've committed crimes, but because they can't pay fines for violations as small as traffic offenses or dog-leash and pet-licensing laws. It's a practice that critics say violates the U.S. and Colorado constitutions and amounts to a resurgence of debtors' prisons, which were abolished in the 1800s. Civil rights lawyers also argue that it's a waste of resources and ends up penalizing those in poverty.

"Jailing Colorado residents because they are too poor to pay their fines is a bad idea for multiple reasons," said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. "It doesn't get the fine paid. It wastes resources. It worsens poverty. It unfairly creates a two-tiered justice system."

A 1983 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found that jailing poor people for not paying court-related fines violates the constitution's equal protection clause.

...

But in nine of the largest 16 cities in Colorado, the ACLU found that judges routinely issue "pay-or-serve" warrants against those too poor to pay court fines. In such cases, individuals are given a stark option: Pay up in cash or pay off fines by serving time in jail. Some judges don't give defendants a court hearing before sending them to jail for unpaid fines. When hearings are held, judges routinely ignore signs of indigence, such as notations on the police summons that the defendant is homeless, a review of court files shows.

[arcane1]

1. In 1997 I spent 5 nights in a Virginia jail for not paying a speeding ticket in time.

It was interesting, to say the least!

[Turbineguy]

2. But it does put more people

in the meatgrinder, so it's not a total loss.

[Stuart G]

3. I wonder what the people in Colorado feel about this?

To me, it stinks, it is awful, unlawful and unconstitutional.
So why do these assholes do this?

[rhett o rick]

5. If nothing else I would hope they recognize that it's costing them a hell of a lot more

to incarcerate the people than the fines are worth.

[TenMiles]

4. Jail for no leash? Sounds cost effective. But at the same time

don't commit the violation? I remember speaking once with someone who was going on about debtors prison because she had a warrant out for her arrest because she did not pay back her credit cards and refused to go to her court date. No matter how hard I tried to explain to her, she could not understand that the warrant was for her not going to her court appearance, not for failing to pay her credit bill.

[hobbit709]

8. Really? Not showing for a civil case gets the other side a summary judgement, not jail for you.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. horrible

[TBF]

7. When you have for-profit prisons

what do folks expect?