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A couple weeks back, the New York Times shed some light on a growing trend of private probation companies ramping up fees on indigents who violate misdemeanors, kicking off a process that sends these people to jail for owing money. Meanwhile the fees would get layered on top of one another. It’s a 21st-century form of debtor’s prison and it violates federal statutes against the practice as it shocks the conscience.
One judge in Alabama, the state profiled in the story, has had enough. In an order against the city of Harpersville, AL, Judge Hub Harrington wrote:
When viewed in a light most favorable to Defendants, their testimony concerning the City’s court system could reasonably be characterized as the operation of a debtors prison. The court notes that these generally fell into disfavor by the early 1800′s, though the practice appears to have remained common place in Harpersville. From a fair reading of the defendants’ testimony one might ascertain that a more apt description of the Harpersville Municipal Court practices is that of a judicially sanctioned extortion racket. Most distressing is that these abuses have been perpetrated by what is supposed to be a court of law. Disgraceful.
Defendants’ depositions present virtually undisputed evidence that criminal defendants appearing before the Harpersville Municipal Court have been subjected to repeated and ongoing violations of almost every safeguard afforded by the United States Constitution, the laws of the State of Alabama, and the Rules of Criminal Procedure. The admitted violations are so numerous as to defy a detailed chronicling in this short space.
This is a harsh ruling. Judge Harrington granted a preliminary injunction hearing to the plaintiff, a victims of the debtor’s prison, and ordered the mayor and every member of the Harpersville City Council to be present at the trial. The judge also said that the city could not incarcerate ANYONE in the county jail or corrections facility without written approval from him. Harrington called the scheme a “judicially sanctioned extortion racket.”
At least one public official still understands his responsibilities in Alabama.
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Hallelujah! Thanks for providing the follow-up story. This is indeed good news for the people of Harpersville. I wonder how many other 1000′s of municipalities across the Red States are doing the same thing!
I hope this one gets front-paged, DDay.
My appreciation to Judge Hub Harrington.
DW
those private prison corporations want a guarantee of 90% occupancy. Debtors will do. Also other 99% offenses–occupiers, drug offenses, low-level “crimes”.
This reminded my of the book “Slavery by Another Name” where the same legal tactics were used to re-enslave people decades after the Civil War ended.
I dreamed that I was a character in Kafka’s novel, The Castle; and that was when I woke up and discovered that I wasn’t dreaming.
Excellent DD. Hope this remains upfront for a while.
As you more or less said, it’s nice to see some semblance, if only merely a residue of a public official’s duty for the public and constitution.
This country is in such a dark place. Thank you David for your reporting, and thank you Judge Harrington.
Locking people up because of debt never makes any sense. “Deadbeat” dads find themselves incarcerated, resulting in a lost job, zero income, and further problems finding work when released. I would suggest that none of these guys have the money, and prefer prison to child support.
Having wages garnished isn’t enough?
You can’t punish people into flourishing.
They are also happy to warehouse the mentally ill. So nice and rare to hear a good news story. The other is the Judge in Mississippi who ruled they could not shut down their last abortion clinic. If someone in Florida would reopen the only TB hospital in the middle of an epidemic. Time to watch all elections for judges because the Republicans have been packing courts for a very long time.
A good outcome to a bleak situation in AL.
Sadly, I expect more debtors’ prisons to rise up – either in AL or elsewhere – to take the place of this sorry situation.
Our Overlords won’t be satisfied until we are all real slaves, not just serfs or peons. After all, a serf or peon still has some rights and the ability to carry through with plans. A slave? Not so much.
A FB friend posted this yesterday. A bit of good news amid bad. I ‘d so like to be in Harpersville for the next hearing!
Keep us podted.
This is decades after the civil war. It’s just that its actually 16 decades. I’m for state’s rights. But, IMO, Alabama, Mississippi, adn sometimes my own state of Texas, should be carefully monitored.
Agreed, as usual. But how many “bleak situations in AL” exist that haven’t been exposed?
South’d gonna do it again!
http://www.alternet.org/story/156071/conservative_southern_values_revived%3A_how_a_brutal_strain_of_american_aristocrats_have_come_to_rule_america_?page=entire
General Sherman must’ve left a stone unturned…..
“Our Overlords won’t be satisfied until we are all real slaves, not just serfs or peons. After all, a serf or peon still has some rights and the ability to carry through with plans. A slave? Not so much.”
As I watched a history of the Irish in America, I was struck by the fact that Irish workers were much more expendable than black slaves, and were given the most dangerous jobs to do, as the employer had invested in the slave. When your wage doesn’t cover everyday expenses and people are offing themselves in such situations, how much worse can slavery be (that’s rhetorical of course)?
Any consequences–financial or legal–for the participants in this extortionate practice???
My rhetorical answer….We MAY just find out.
I checked.
Vegas odds are 9-2 against
Are you asking about Congress and the corporations that bought the ACA’s;
“Heath insurance mandates?” “Life Tax” “Tax penalties?” “Punitive coercion?? All in the same vein? Servitude?
Nice to see how state’s protect their citizens?
A real Judge, finally! Much should shock the conscience these days. Unfortunately something has anesthetized America’s collective sense of right and wrong? Must be competition for those dinner scraps, left by the 1%?
DING DING DING!!!!
“Extortion racket”
Most unfortunate Judge Hub Harrington had not been sitting in Justice Robert’s seat @ SJC? Maybe this Judge would have stuck down the mandate, upheld that which protects American, but ultimately remand it back to Congress to find a more equitable way to pay for healthcare services. Maybe the “SJC” could have suggested .0003% “Wall Street Transaction Tax” to Congress as a measure to protect equity and justice, rather than placing Americans into more servitude?
Judge Harrington really socked it to ‘em down in Harpersville. Good news for a change. One down, how many to go?
The idea was to lock people up to get them deeper into debt. Not a debt incurred from spending but debt imposed by fines and costs. Once people got put into the system they would never come out. Slaves to the powers that be, all legal. Perfect.
“Not a debt incurred from spending but debt imposed by fines and costs.”
Debt imposed by fines and costs?
Now you know why Romney as Gov. of Massachusetts called the “individual mandate,” a fine, a penalty, instead of a “tax.” Games with semantic gutting constitutional protection designed for American citizens from the abuses of CORPORATIONS, COURTS, and GOVERNMENTS, all raping life and liberty in the name of
crack cocaine“money.”