Posted on 06/13/2014 8:39:25 AM PDT by Rusty0604
PHILADELPHIA – A growing number of Americans are expressing outrage that a Pennsylvania mother of seven died in jail last weekend while serving a 48-hour sentence over unpaid, school truancy-related fines.
DiNinoEileen DiNino, 55, was found dead last Saturday in her jail cell. Authorities don’t know the cause of death yet, they have ruled out suspicious behavior.
DiNino was being penalized because several of her children routinely missed school. According to the Associated Press, “She had racked up $2,000 in fines, fees and court costs since 1999...
The fines related to school truancy are quite small – perhaps $20 – but it’s the court-related costs that are most expensive, sometimes reaching $150. Such costs add up quickly and make it nigh impossible for low-income parents to pay.
In the county where DiNino lived, roughly 110 parents of truant students are jailed every year.
Americans of all political stripes are denouncing the practice and likening it to the debtor’s prisons from the nation’s Colonial days.
(Excerpt) Read more at eagnews.org ...
Should the penalty be JAIL?
If the convicted offender won’t comply with paying a fine, incarceration has to be an option. What other option is there? Garnishment? If no income, then what?
A fine for not doing something is not the same as one person stealing cash from another. Or if it is, could you explain it to me?
What “options” are usually exercised when a $20 fine is not paid?
Obamacare just overpaid $152 MILLION to unqualified applicants for insurance supplements, and they were just told not to worry about paying it back.
I’m home following eye surgery, and you’ve spent more than $20 arguing with me on this stupid subject.
The $20 is not relevant, so get off that. I am discussing principle, which is relevant across the board.
If laws should not, cannot be enforced, then they are a farce. That is NO law. And that is lawlessness.
What a racket they got going on over there. The court charges $120 in court costs for a measly $20 fine. Only the government can do this.
First of all, there is no indication that there was only one $20 fine, the article just stated that fines are "perhaps $20" and that the court costs can be up to $150. That is no indication of the situation in this case. So your conjecture is not warranted.
Only the government can do this.
The last I checked, credit card companies and other creditors can assess exorbitant late fees, over-limit fees and the like. So, no, it's not "only the government" that does this.
Yes, it is.
MasterCard cannot decide they don't like what I am doing and tell me I now owe them money.
If they do I am free to laugh in their face.
Even if I enter into a contract with MasterCard and am unable to repay money they lent me all I have to do is declare I am bankrupt. At that point their only way of punishment is to decide not to ever lend to me again.
But the local government, whom I never entered into any contract with, can decide that I am not doing something they want to force me to do and so they fine me and put me in jail when I can't pay the fine.
However, a person who can’t control her own spawn and can’t get the father(s) to help control them shouldn’t be lauded as a victim.
This degree of compassion is remarkable.
No, in fact the $20 IS “the point”!!!
The punishment was far in excess of the crime!
There seems to be a presupposition by many on this thread that forcing students to go to government schools is a positive good, and the only topic of discussion is what means shall be used to compel parents to comply. I disagree with the fundamental premise. If anyone can show me the place in the Constitution that mandates public school education and attendance for all, I would be fascinated.
This country managed to grow and prosper for centuries before all children were forced by law to attend a school. I do not agree that the public schools are doing such a good job of preparing kids for adult life that everyone must be forced to attend on threat of death.
For someone who is ostensibly a conservative, you certainly are a strong supporter of totalitarian government and its intrusion into private family life.
“Call and send letter; report to credit bureau.”
Right, or just write it off as uncollectable debt.
“The debt is voluntary action in that case, unlike this case where the fine is for something the parent didn’t do.”
Well, the parent does have some responsibility because they are ultimately in charge of whether their children are attending school or not. I don’t really care whether the state wants to try to levy a fine against the parent, I just think it’s foolish for the state to put people in jail for not paying.
I didn’t know I was making that assumption. I think you’re presumptuous.
Not true. I am a little older than this lady, info physical labor, am very active in terms of hiking, swimming, even skiing and riding. But I have a chronic illness, and if I were to go to jail for a few nights without my medication, I could well die. Many middle aged people are in the same boat.
“But we know that the subject of the post and thread did not willingly enter into any contract. Neither do victims of the medical-insurance rackets.”
This is a good point, I think. I also would like to venture a guess that, if the person in question had been jailed for not paying Obamacare-related penalties, fwdude might not be so in favor of that, am I correct?
(I know it’s still illegal for the Feds to jail people for debts, but that could change with a simple act of Congress)
There you go, dying on the inside without medication.
If they were dedied their daily used medication then someone could go up for manslaughter I would think.
No, I don’t think everyone is assuming that mandatory government education is good, we are just focusing on a different aspect of the story. The mandatory schooling is just the status quo now, those are the laws on the books until we change them. We can’t ignore the other questions that this story raises, about whether those laws are being enforced properly, just because we don’t agree with the laws.
Also, it’s not really a Constitutional matter, because we are talking state laws. The Feds bribe the states into their educational agenda with money, but the states, unhindered by the Constitution in this area, are the ones who make the laws to force it on us.
It’s called a “lien”, you idiot.
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