Balancing the Budget on the Poor

John Oliver: It’s Time to Pay Up– Or Chill Out in Debtor’s Prison

VIRAL VIDEO

Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

Debtors’ prisons have made a huge comeback.

Hooray?

If you have money, committing a municipal violation is a minor inconvenience. If you don’t, it can ruin your life.

John Oliver took on fines for municipal violations and how they disproportionately harm the poor and minorities on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight.”

If there’s one thing John Oliver teaches us, it’s that being broke sucks. Whether it’s payday loans or municipal violations, making one mistake when you’re broke can result in months or years of being screwed.

“We have all committed municipal violations, and if you’ve never gotten a ticket for one, congratulations on not getting caught,” he said on Sunday.

What can start out as a small fine for speeding or not wearing a seatbelt quickly balloons when municipalities and courts tack on surcharges and fees. And when offenders can’t immediately pay them, they can have their license suspended, making it difficult for them to continue working.

“Most Americans drive to work, and if you can’t do that, you’ve got a problem,” he said.

“In New Jersey, a survey of low-income drivers who had their license suspended found that 64 percent had lost their jobs as a result, which doesn’t help anyone. You need them to pay their fine, but you’re taking away their means of paying it.”

Some municipalities pass off enforcement to private companies, which charge their own fees, making it impossible for some to pay off their tickets.

Take Harriet Cleveland, for example.

When Harriet Cleveland opened her door one morning, the last thing she expected to see was a cop. And when she did open her door, it didn’t even cross her mind that he might be there for her, because the only thing she had ever done was to get a minor traffic ticket.

Except he was there for her. To take her away to the local pokey for not paying her traffic debt.

Since Harriet didn’t have enough money to pay her ticket, the court handed the collection responsibility over to a private company that slapped enormous fees onto the cost. Every time Harriet tried to pay off the ticket, all the money she handed over went to cover the fees, not the ticket itself. And the fees kept increasing regardless. Eventually, she had to decide between paying the fees and covering her food and utilities.

So she gave up. And she went to jail.

And there are hundreds of thousands more like Harriet across the nation. Debtors prisons’ — throwing people in jail for owing money — are theoretically illegal. The federal government outlawed them in 1833, and most states followed shortly thereafter. And yet, shady cities and towns and municipalities across America– including Humboldt County– have slowly been bringing them back.

“Let’s be clear, no one is saying people who break the law shouldn’t be punished,” Oliver said. ”This isn’t about being soft on crime, but having fines people can reasonably pay off.”

“Not only should municipalities not be balancing their books on the backs of their most vulnerable citizens, but we cannot have a system where committing a minor violation can end up putting you in jail,” he added.

Make no mistake: there are a growing number of citizens going to jail at the behest of banks and a welcoming judicial system. Our Founding Fathers would have had a hissy fit. And we wonder as the courts balance their beastly burgeoning budgets on the backs of the working poor, “What the Hell Did You Do With All That Money?”

~Via John Oliver, HBO, YouTube, UpWorthy and the Humboldt Sentinel