Debtors' Prison Is Back -- and Just as Cruel as Ever

Daily Finance.com ^ | 8/30/2012 | Ross Kenneth Urken

[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. * * *

[GeronL]

I figured it’d be the lib-RINO’s who would bring back debtors prisons

[GeronL]

135% interest??

That is probably the annual rate, but the loan term is probably for 2 weeks.

[GeronL]

I bet no poor farmer could get a good loan around the year of the Jubilee.

[Bikkuri]

Yup.. pathetic, isn’t it?! :/

[Nowhere Man]

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).

As the rule goes, "the more laws you make, you make more criminals." I think Ayn Rand said it but in many more words. That is plain wrong, many times without a driver's license, you're screwed unless you drive illegally, I've known people who just say "fudge it" and have done this.

[Nowhere Man]

One more thing, all you will do is create more types of situations like you see in the 1994 movie, “Falling Down,” one of my favorites.

[Jotmo]

Yes. Doing Okay now.

Thanks