Debtors prisons were outlawed in the United States nearly 200 years ago. And more than 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear: Judges cannot send people to jail just because they are too poor to pay their court fines.
That decision came in a 1983 case called Bearden v. Georgia, which held that a judge must first consider whether the defendant has the ability to pay but "willfully" refuses.
The NPR Website has an interesting article about this subject, pointing out that “pay the fine or go to jail” is still the way things work today– even when the judge’s ruling makes absolutely no sense.
What should be done with a person who has committed an offense and can’t or won’t pay the fine?
Obviously, we can’t just say Okay and let them go Scot free. The old “thirty days or thirty dollars” type of sentencing makes perfect sense in spite of those bleeding hearts who say it isn’t fair that the rich pay fines and the poor go to jail. Calling it Debtor’s Prison is simply misleading and inflammatory.
Like Bobby Blake used to say on Baretta, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”
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