Page 56 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

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Not surprisingly, these fees add up quickly . And with interest and penalties, individuals find themselves deep in debt . A 2010 report by the Brennan Center for Justice includes a docket sheet for a Pennsylvania woman convicted of a drug crime . She incurred 26 different fees, including $100 .00 for the cost of “police transport” after her arrest and a “service charge” of $230 .00 .21 Altogether, her fees totaled $2,464: an amount three times larger than both her fine and restitution combined .22 Similar stories echo in towns and cities across the U .S .
Being in debt to the criminal justice system is serious . Enforcement is not limited to annoying calls from creditors or threatening letters in the mail . Rather, collection of criminal justice debt is levied by law enforcement . In many states, driver’s licenses are suspended for missed payments, causing those who are employed to miss work and then to fall further behind in their payments .23 In several states, probation and parole can be revoked, or default can result in re-arrest on the charge of failing to pay .24
Although, in theory, debtors’ prison has been outlawed in the U .S . for two centuries, it remains a reality for poor people entangled in the criminal justice system . The Brennan Center report identifies four common paths to debtors’ prison: (1) denial or revocation of probation or parole; (2) civil or criminal enforcement proceedings that result in incarceration; (3) “choosing jail”— some programs “allow” defendants to pay down their debt by spending time in jail; and (4) arrest and pre-hearing incarceration, when an individual is arrested for failure to pay and is incarcerated pending a hearing on his or her ability to pay .25
The New York Times recently featured the story of Jack Dawley from Norwalk, Ohio, who was released from prison in 2007 with $1,400 in debt to the municipal court .26 Mr . Dawley paid down his debt steadily for four years, but a back injury in 2012 caused him to miss a payment . He was arrested and jailed for ten days . When he got out, he had ninety days to make a payment . He failed and went back to jail . Later in 2012, he got a job as a cashier . He was on his way to cash his first paycheck when he was again arrested for failing to make a payment and sent back to jail . He missed eight days of work and lost his job . Jail . Default . Jail . Repeat .
A closer look at these paths to debtors’ prison reveals that there is something motivating these enforcement tactics besides just money . Incarceration is expensive . In 2012, the Vera Institute of Justice estimated that the average annual cost of incarceration in the U .S . was $31,286 per inmate .27 The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction reports that its daily cost per inmate is $164 .28 That means Ohio spent about $3,300 to incarcerate Mr . Dawley for two ten-day periods, more than twice the amount of his original 2007 debt . Why spend more to incarcerate someone than could possibly be recouped in the process? From a purely budgetary perspective, it just does not make sense .
21 Id. at 9.
22 Id.
23 Id. at 24.
24 Id. at 25
25 Id. at 20.
26 Rosenberg, supra note 13.
27 chrisTian henrichson & ruTh delaney, vera insT. of JusTice, The price of prisons: whaT incarceraTion cosTs Tax payers 9, (2012), available at http://www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/price-of-prisons-updated- version-021914.pdf.
28 Ohio State Penitentiary, Institutional Information, ohio dep’T of rehaB. & corr. (last visited May 27, 2015), http:// www.drc.ohio.gov/public/osp.htm.
Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality