Friday, April 17, 2009

An Idea Whose Time Has Returned

Debtor's prisons. [More]

But only if you owe the government, of course.

But see, there are always weasel words to distract the weak-minded:
Florida officials get around this by claiming the defendants are going to jail not for their debts but for violating a court order.
See, it's not what it looks like if we call it something else. Don't think of it as rape, think of it as government employee gratification.

Would that logic be more like "Don't call me Norman" or "Who's interferin'?"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This has been going on for decades in Tennessee for child support cases. A women tells the court her ex-husband is behind on payments. The judge issues a warrent, asks the man in court if he has all the money, sends him straight to jail if he doesn't, and keeps him there until he does.

straightarrow said...

I worked with a man who would periodically be arrested and returned to Oklahoma to be incarcerated from Friday night to Monday. Then he would produce all his receipts that showed he wasn't behind and had never been behind. The last time he was cuffed, jailed in Savannah,Ga. then flown to Oklahoma, lost his job, his car and possessions were in Ga., he was charged for one one-way airline ticket and one round trip (for the deputy) that accompanied and the deputy's overtime. He owed that no matter the outcome of his case.

He had had enough, it was about the sixth time it had happened to him. His father showed up with his receipts, the judge dismissed the case but this time he told the judge "You sonsofbitches have done this to me every 2 or 3 mo. for more than two years. The next time it happens, you will have to arrest me for killing her and judge, you too, if I can get to you. I have had enough."

That was the very first time she had ever been reprimanded for this crap. she was informed that she would be going to jail if she ever filed another false report. My observation, the judge should have done this the first time. Only when he felt threatened did he decide to try a different tack. And he did feel threatened and yes Glen took a hell of a chance on jail for making that threat, fortunately for everyone the judge recognized it as a promise. And he didn't want to push the man any farther than he had been pushed.