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Debtors' Prison Is Back -- and Just as Cruel as Ever
Daily Finance.com ^ | 8/30/2012 | Ross Kenneth Urken

Posted on 08/31/2012 7:20:00 AM PDT by ex-Texan

To most of us, "debtors' prison" sounds like an archaic institution, something straight out of a Dickens novel. But the idea of jailing people who can't pay what they owe is alive and well in 21st-century America.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, debt collectors in Missouri, Illinois, Alabama and other states are using a legal loophole to justify jailing poor citizens who legitimately cannot pay their debts.

Here's how clever payday lenders work the system in Missouri -- where, it should be noted, jailing someone for unpaid debts is illegal under the state constitution.

First, explains St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the creditor gets a judgment in civil court that a debtor hasn't paid a sum that he owes. Then, the debtor is summoned to court for an "examination": a review of their financial assets.

If the debtor fails to show up for the examination -- as often happens in such cases -- the creditor can ask for a "body attachment" -- essentially, a warrant for the debtor's arrest. At that point, the police can haul the debtor in and jail them until there's a court hearing, or until they pay the bond. No coincidence, the bond is usually set at the amount of the original debt. * * *

(Excerpt) Read more at dailyfinance.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: debtorsprison; economy; finance
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Our corrupt Congress -- both Dems and Repubs -- amended the Bankruptcy laws to permit all sorts of ancient outrages. Currupt Banksters own our government today. We cannot get a complete discharge of old unpaid debts today even though our Forefathers demanded that provision be inserted into the U.S. Constitution. Thousands fled England and Europe under a legitimate fear of lifetime imprisonment for a their own or a relative's debt
1 posted on 08/31/2012 7:20:00 AM PDT by ex-Texan
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To: ex-Texan
Currupt Banksters own our government today.

Yes and when they cry for our money, Congress gives it to them.

2 posted on 08/31/2012 7:22:24 AM PDT by bmwcyle (Corollary - Electing the same person over and over and expecting a different outcome is insanity)
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To: blam; TigerLikesRooster; Whenifhow; Cincinatus' Wife; familyop; M. Espinola; stephenjohnbanker

*Ping* !


3 posted on 08/31/2012 7:23:51 AM PDT by ex-Texan (The Time to "Wake Up" is Over !)
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To: ex-Texan

They’ve been doing this for years to divorced fathers who legitimately cannot pay child support. Yeah, jail the guy so he has no chance at all of earning anything to pay the support. Yeah, some fathers are scumbags, but many are not. Why not jail the mothers who take in the child support and use it for everything but supporting the child.


4 posted on 08/31/2012 7:25:13 AM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: ex-Texan

The problem here is debt, not the laws behind it. If people weren’t fed this line of BS from our government that they can recklessly spend on credit without fear of reprisal, we wouldn’t have any of the money problems we have today. Hell, even our government does it, and they don’t have to pay any piper!

Payday lenders are a scam and should be outlawed. They’re also racist. Go through the lower class part of your local urban area, and you’ll see Amscots on every street corner. You go to your more upper-class parts of town, and you’d be lucky to find a single one.

My favorite is this “Western Sky” payday lender who advertises on primetime TV to the “urban” crowds. It says in the fine print on the bottom of the commercial that there’s a 135% interest rate. 135%! You take out a $100 payday advance and you owe them over double what you took out. How is that legal?


5 posted on 08/31/2012 7:25:56 AM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: ex-Texan

Well, for one, I don’t think bankruptcy laws are an outrage. Some of the creditors in many bankruptcy cases are not “Banksters”; they are real people, businesses, tradesmen, etc. that have been taken by irresponsible people.

It used to be so easy to skirt debt, and a plethora of people used it to steal from others.

I’m not buying this ancient debtor’s prison crap.


6 posted on 08/31/2012 7:26:43 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: ex-Texan

I think there should be a big tax from which everyone’s debts can be paid. And instead of debtor’s prison, they should give debtors a vacation trip to some nice place where everything is free. And debtors should get free credit cards and a gift basket.

Debt is the American way.


7 posted on 08/31/2012 7:27:24 AM PDT by Born to Conserve
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To: rarestia

Indian Squaw speak with forked tongue?


8 posted on 08/31/2012 7:28:49 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: ex-Texan

Where have you been? We’ve had debtor’s prison again since they passed deadbeat dad laws back in the 90’s.


9 posted on 08/31/2012 7:32:41 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: ex-Texan
"If the debtor fails to show up for the examination..."

It's called a "Failure to Appear" warrant. It's no different than a DWI or anything else. When the court tells you show up, my advice is: show up. All the court can do is to confirm that you owe the money, which you do.

10 posted on 08/31/2012 7:35:29 AM PDT by NurdlyPeon (It's down to 'anybody but Obama'. And may God forgive me for what I must do in November.)
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To: RJS1950

You beat me to it. It’s a crime to be out of work if you are a divorced father.


11 posted on 08/31/2012 7:36:43 AM PDT by BubbaBasher ("Liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals" - Sam Adams)
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To: rarestia
My favorite is this “Western Sky” payday lender who advertises on primetime TV to the “urban” crowds.

yeah, but the Indian chick on those commercials is red hot. Note the fine print in this screen cap about how much the loan costs btw...


12 posted on 08/31/2012 7:37:09 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (obozo could bring back literal slavery with chains and still he will get 97+% of the black vote)
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To: RJS1950

Don’t forget to mention they also take away the drivers license and passport... If the man lives in a city with no public transportation, that is a nightmare :/
(Or are overseas.. you end up stuck overseas because you can’t make the money to go back to the states).


13 posted on 08/31/2012 7:39:57 AM PDT by Bikkuri (Choose, a communist, socialist, or Patriot)
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To: Gaffer
Indian Squaw speak with forked tongue?

Expect her to bloviate at length on this topic in her Convention speech. I do not however expect her to address the borough government in Suburban Pittsburgh that jailed a woman over $127 in unpaid wage tax.


14 posted on 08/31/2012 7:41:35 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: rarestia
The problem here is debt, not the laws behind it.

My #1 fear, even ahead of a second Obama term, is that eventually this country is going to elect the Second Coming of Hitler if he promises to start sending these people to Leavenworth. I can see it coming like a freight train on the Kansas prairie.


15 posted on 08/31/2012 7:43:35 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: freedumb2003

The website shows different numbers, but any way you look at it, it’s a scam. You’re being punished for borrowing money.

I doubt Sitting Bull was sitting around thinking, “We show Paleface in many moons by scalping them with interest rates.”


16 posted on 08/31/2012 7:48:31 AM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: freedumb2003

“You don’t need no White Man’s Credit” “Your loan is secured by a handshake and your scalp..”


17 posted on 08/31/2012 7:51:14 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: ex-Texan

OK, so what prison will America go to if she can’t pay back her debts?


18 posted on 08/31/2012 7:52:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (bOTRT)
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To: ex-Texan

This procedure is fairly common and the article is very misleading. The debtor is not being jailed for failure to pay, but for failure to appear. It can be avoided by showing up for the hearing.


19 posted on 08/31/2012 7:53:05 AM PDT by Squawk 8888 (Tories in- now the REAL work begins!)
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To: freedumb2003
yeah, but the Indian chick on those commercials is red hot.

Shame on you ;^)

20 posted on 08/31/2012 7:53:17 AM PDT by Right Brother
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