More Class Warfare: Droves Of American Poor Incarcerated For Not Paying Court Fees

Greetings,

Stephen Papa of Grand Rapids, Mich., is an Iraq War veteran. While homeless and unable to find a job after being discharged, Papa was charged with destruction of property and resisting arrest.

Assessed with $2,600 in court and legal fees, Papa’s presiding judge placed the veteran on a $50 per month payment plan. However, as Papa only brought $25 with him to court that day, the judge found him in default of the payment plan and sentenced him to 22 days in jail.

Tom Barrett of Augusta, Ga., shoplifted a can of beer that was worth less than $2. For the crime, Barrett was ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device in lieu of jail time. At $12 per day, the homeless man was unable to afford the rental fee and was subsequently sentenced to 12 months in jail. (He ended up serving two.)

Papa and Barrett are part of a troubling trend in the United States. On Monday, NPR published the results of a year-long investigation into the expanding use of user fees in the U.S. court system. In an overwhelming number of cases, the use of these fees is fostering a situation in which the poor face harsher treatment and steeper penalties than those who are able to pay — even when they’re found guilty of identical crimes. This trend represents de facto economic discrimination in the legal system.

According to the Constitution, a defendant is entitled to counsel in court, a trial by jury, due process under the law and a speedy trial. NPR has found that almost all states now charge defendants for some or all of these constitutionally-protected guarantees. For example, 43 states and the District of Columbia charge for the use of a public defender. Currently, 41 states charge room and board fees for jail and prison stays. All states, except Hawaii and the District of Columbia, charge for the use of mandated electronic monitoring devices, and 44 states bill defenders for probation and parole supervision.

Worse, despite the 1983 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Bearden v. Georgia declaring that a defendant cannot be imprisoned for failing to pay a court fee if the defendant has no means to pay it, many courts have sentenced defendants to jail or prison for violations of payment orders — as in the cases of Papa and Barrett….More Here

Source: www.mintpressnews.com