As economy flails, debtors' prisons thrive.

reply to post by SilentKoala

try following along here, ok ?

They can get a paternity test to prove it.

yes, that happens every day

however, the question was ... why are ppl (men and women) who are NOT the biological parent (you know, they had a paternity test to prove it) being jailed for not paying 'court-ordered' support for persons they didn't create ??

yes, in some but very few cases, support is paid and utilized in its most pristine vision ... however, those cases are so very few and far between that they simply cannot justify the abuse of millions of others.

Originally posted by SilentKoala
Although I completely disagree with the idea of debtors prisons, I think you're over-exaggerating this a bit. These are not private debts, these are public debts - court fees, traffic fines, etc. It is not the case anywhere that you can go to jail for failing to pay a private bill like your Vias bill. (If that were the case, over half of all Americans would be in jail!)

now that the offense of your statement has worn off, i have a question.

you stated "[color=amber] These are not private debts, these are public debts - court fees, traffic fines, etc and while that is true to an extent, why are only some citizens subject to jail terms for the same behavior ???

i can think of about 500 politicians who haven't even been charged let alone jailed for much worse behaviors regarding PUBLIC debts.

ETA --> really, if PUBLIC debt is the criteria, why isn't Holder the first to go ?
he did authorize the purchase of thousands of 'assault weapons' which have proven un-recoverable ... and he certainly isn't offering to pay us back, is he ?

reply to post by SilentKoala


I will strongly disagree with you. I had an outstanding medical bill I did not know about. It ended up being taken to court. I didn't know this was happening. Since this is a small town, I know most of the law enforcement. At the grocery store, one of them told me about a warrant out on me. I call the sheriffs office, found out I just needed to pay about $400 and then be in the clear. If I didn't, I would be jailed until it was paid. I did so and all was good.

Later, I found out the amount of the warrant was the EXACT amount owed to the debt collector. So do not tell me debtors prison doesn't exist in America. The debt collectors pass the amount owed to them to the courts and then let the American judicial system collect for them. It is real and it happens all the time. Research it.

reply to post by PassedKarma

"I find this to be ridiculous as it costs an average of $30 to house ONE person PER DAY in prison."

I did the calculations based on national encarceration statistics and the figure per day is more than twice that.
I don't remember exactly, but its closer to $70 per day average.