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Resurgence of debtors' prisons
Poor defendants are being jailed at increasingly alarming rates for failing to pay legal debts they can never hope to afford, according to two new reports released today by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Brennan Center for Justice.
The reports detail how states across the country, in the face of mounting budget deficits, are more aggressively going after poor people who have already served their criminal sentences, and in so doing undermining re-entry prospects, paving the way back to prison or jail and burdening the public with yet more costs.
"Incarcerating people simply because they cannot afford to pay their legal debts is not only unconstitutional but also has a devastating impact upon men and women, whose only crime is that they are poor," said Eric Balaban, senior staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project.
The ACLU report, "In for a Penny: The Rise of America's New Debtors' Prisons," and the Brennan Center report, "The Hidden Cost of Criminal Justice Debt," show how the resurgent phenomenon of imprisoning people who are unable to pay fines and court fees is in fact counterproductive. States and counties, hard pressed to find revenue to shore up failing budgets, see a ready source of funds in defendants who can be assessed financial penalties above and beyond their criminal sentences that must be repaid upon pain of imprisonment.
Source: ACLU