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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJailed for $280: The Return of Debtors' Prisons
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jailed-for--280--the-return-of-debtors--prisons.htmlHow 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."
Although the U.S. abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don't pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans. In parts of Illinois, debt collectors commonly use publicly funded courts, sheriff's deputies, and country jails to pressure people who owe even small amounts to pay up, according to the AP.
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."
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Jailed for $280: The Return of Debtors' Prisons (Original Post)
Javaman
Apr 2012
OP
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)1. It can't happen here. K&R. n/t
Festivito
(13,452 posts)2. Then a mistake in billing needs to get jail time. /nt
closeupready
(29,503 posts)3. Land of (Abraham) Lincoln, who filed for bankruptcy in 1833.
Real irony there, IMO. And sad. K&R
lovuian
(19,362 posts)4. We do seem to be heading for a repeat of Dickens times
if you read Lil Dorrit by Dickens
it shows the rot of a dying British Empire
where Debtors Prison were places children were born in
Yes its called DEBTORS SLAVERY
In the Middle Ages they locked up whole families and made them slaves Indentured Serfs
In America ...home of the Free and Land of Capitalism
More than a third of U.S. states allow borrowers to be jailed for non payment of debts
Judges have signed off on more than 5,000 such warrants since the start of 2010 in nine counties."[17] Because of sloppy, incomplete or even false documentation, many borrowers facing jail time dont even know theyre being sued by creditors.[18]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors%27_prison