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Girl's death sparks debate over Florida probation system

I found this quote from the defendent's last judge:

Sarasota Circuit Judge Harry Rapkin, the latest judge to have handled Smith's case, said Friday he was not at fault for not putting Smith in jail when the unemployed mechanic failed to pay court costs and fines in December.
There's no "debtor's prison" in Florida, and Smith wouldn't have been held simply for not paying a bill, the judge said.

What "debtor's prison"? If you don't pay your tickets, you are sent to jail for being defiant of the court. Court costs and fines also figure into this.

Is Florida that different from Texas that there are no warrants for people who refuse to pay fines? Maybe this is why such a "large" percentage of Texans have been jailed compared to the rest of the country; the law means something here.

Debtor's prison would be for people who don't pay their rent, credit card/phone/electric bills, etc.

Judge Rapkin is not as many believe here. I am the first to admit to the insanity of FL Judges for various reasons. FL has sentencing guidelines, the prosecutor can not offer a sentence that is not in the guidlines, the Judge can not accept a sentence outside the guidelines.

Make no mistake, I am not defending the killer scum. However this is not a judge who does the same kind of bias games as been demonstrated in the Schiavo case.

What were the guidline scores the judge had to work with? what was the offer from the prosecutor? The prosecutor may have offered the sentence and the judge signed off on the plea.

From the article, his most serious charge was kidnapping which went to trial and he won a not guilty. The most recent charges were not violent but drug related. The aquital could not be considered. FL has a truth in sentencing law, you have to do no less than 85% of the time is charged. Some charges are hard time with no time off for good behavior.

BTW the failure to pay a court cost or fine seldom gets a person put in jail when they are underemployed or out of work. It is that whole FL and the USA does not have debtor's prisons. Now if the person is employed and refuses to pay, that is different story.

In short I am saying we need to choose our battles. There is an investigation now, this particular Judge is not one who does not do things by the book, not good not bad. No I don't know him personally.

If you don't pay your tickets, you don't go to jail they suspend your license. It is a civil infraction. There is no risk of jail for a violation of FL Statutes Ch 316 which is the traffic laws.

The REFUSAL to pay a fine is different from the inability to pay a fine. The Refusal is contemptuous. (intentional disrespect to the court.) You have to have a court hearing to show the failure to pay was not intentional and have an opportunity to purge the contempt.

One of my best friends was jailed in TN for speeding tickets. This quote just represents another lame excuse and another attempt at dodging responsibility.

If Charles Manson was brought before me with a bunch of speeding tickets I would look at his entire record and think to myself...'hhmmmm, old Charlie doesn't need to be out walking the streets. I'm going to toss his butt back into jail for these tickets.'