Guilty of Poverty? - Debtors Prison in the USSA

Guilty of Poverty? - Debtors Prison in the USSA

The jailers of the 19th century — even in the pre-Civil War South — largely abandoned the practice of imprisoning people for falling into debt as counterproductive and ultimately barbaric. In the 1970s and ’80s, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that incarcerating people who can’t pay fines because of poverty violates the U.S. Constitution.

Apparently, though, some state and county jails never got the memo when they put the wealth of the Federal Government behind the PERSECUTION of SO CALLED "Deadbeat Dads." Welcome to the debtors’ prisons of the 21st century.

Orwellian word play means that if we make up the right slogan, and apply it to an abhorrent concept, we can sell the slogan and institute the concept. - Don't be #ing fooled - case in point "Deadbeat Dads..."

The disregard of the justice system for the rights of poor people to equal protection and due process is cause for outrage. But it shouldn't’t come as a surprise in an era when the government spends billions bailing out banks while letting foreclosures and unemployment ruin the lives of working people, while still having enough to attack impoverished fathers who are underemployed.

Let’s look at people who can’t afford child support due to underemployment… First off, there’s a big difference between dead-beat and dead-broke… If a poor person owes child support, first any professional license, passport, drivers license, all taken away. - None of these things are better for the child because they make it less likely a parent could pay. Then the person is thrown in jail for civil contempt - again less likely to pay PLUS the child now has a 500% greater chance of going to jail themselves because their parent was thrown in jail - not to mention the shame etc. - And of course it never makes anyone a better parent to be gang raped. So what happens is that they make it impossible for a parent to pay child support because they could not afford to pay it. — Think it’s a joke, don't, the last statistic from 2006 said IT WAS CLOSE TO 1 MILLION PARENTS in jail for this and that was before the economic meltdown which coincidentally has been close to 80% men who have lost their jobs - the ones most likely to need to pay child support.

Also - The average cost to a county to incarcerate someone for being poor is 64K a year to put the impoverished father in jail (most likely he owes way less than that). - Also - it’s indefinite, I talked to a kid who was there for 3.5 yrs for only being too poor to pay the child support. Also - because its CIVIL contempt, they can’t get a free lawyer to rep them. - it’s debtors prison, wake up America, they just want you to get used to the idea by using phrases like deadbeat dad - as if these poor #ers had some choice. Rich people who don’t pay - immediately pay up before the first gang rape, but the poor guys cant so they sit in jail indefinitely so a child molester can get out due to overcrowding. And don’t forget the effect - if that guy ever does get out do you think he’ll ever pledge to the flag - i doubt it, he’ll probably turn to a life of crime because what’s really the choice then? Get your ass raped till it bleeds and blow 20 racially hatred motivated gang members a day - or rob a bank… What would you pick?

Gunna agree with you 100 % on this one.

I always found 'the system' to be incredibly unfair when it comes to mens' rights whenever some wh#re is involved. But that is the way of life.

A good friend of mine is facing just this.... Even having his own kid to support, and being a struggling full-time college student, he has to be in court in a few days for 'contempt', having already lost his license... and any chance of travel or anything else. Why? Because when he turned 18, he was lured into a one-nighter with an almost-30 who was fearing getting too old to have kids.

He has never seen the critter, but is probably about to go to jail, have his kid taken into some system, and lose any chance of finishing college -- No future.

Honestly, who is this going to help? Congrats USSR, Obama, and wh#res everywhere. I can't wait til the rest of us start getting imprisoned for that Emergency Room visit that we can never possibly pay off.

What do you think those government ``homeless camps where you have no rights`` are?

Remember those in tent cities in California were evicted to be forced into government camps?

Being poor in america is a crime... way to go.

[edit on 29-4-2009 by Vitchilo]