By Jay Syrmopoulos Would you believe that in modern day America people are being incarcerated for being too poor to pay fines even though debtors’ prisons were outlawed in the U.S. in 1833?
The practice was still so prevalent, even after being outlawed, that the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on the issue 30 years ago, ruling that judges couldn’t send people to jail for simply being too poor to pay fines.
Nonetheless, some courts continue to engage in nefarious revenue generating schemes with for-profit probation companies that violate the Supreme Court ruling and continue the ugly tradition of debtors’ prisons. Check out this excellent …read more