Debtors prison and the Great Texas Warrant Roundup
This article which can be found here, is written by Grits For Breakfast. This article talks about how the justice system, and police, are being used and have been used for a while now to fill budget gaps by turning court rooms and police men into tax collectors.
It starts out by talking about another story that CBS did titled "How you could go to debtor's prison in the U.S.". A piece of the story states, " An increasing number of states and localities look to close budget gaps through fees and fines accessed through the criminal justice system. The scenario has created a cottage industry of for-profit probation companies like JCS, which oversee payment plans and collect fines and fees on behalf of municipalities." This gives a good precedence to our story we shall delve into next.
The Great Texas Warrant Roundup is the latest manifestation of this practice. This operation is timed to tap debtors around the time they may be getting a tax refund. One way that this practice works is like this. Starting with traffic tickets, (have you noticed how many police have been trolling for speeders lately) which can gravely harm low income families. The story gives an example of how depending on the jurisdiction, a ticket for failing to signal a lane change will cost you around $66. Then the State adds an additional $103 in court costs and other fees. Add the fact that some may not be able to afford these fees Texas will add another fee to put on on a payment plan, also an administrative fee just for handing money over to the court. That $66 dollar fine for a simple signal infraction can grow into a fee of over $500 dollars!
Sadly this is just the start of the poor victims problems if they fall into this. If you can't and don't have the means to pay these fines the state will suspend your renewal of your driver's license (add another $30 dollars for this) when this happens you will not be able to renew your register your vehicle, making it illegal for you to drive to the job you need to make a living let alone pay all those ridiculous fees. Also if you risk trying to drive to work with an expired registration your sure to be pulled over and start back at square one.
One example of this given by this article is: "Valerie Gonzales, one of the original plaintiffs represented by the Texas Fair Defense Project in a class action lawsuit against the City of Austin. Valerie is a 31-year old mother of five children with disabilities. She and her family live in poverty. After receiving two traffic tickets nine years ago, not only had Valerie's tickets multiplied and her fines ballooned into the thousands of dollars, she lost a job after she was unconstitutionally jailed without the benefit of a court-appointed attorney."
Finally here is the real kicker to this whole story. When The Great Texas Warrant Roundup begins people like Valerie are arrested and judges across Texas will Demand payment in exchange for liberty. The judges will not ask questions about how their finances are or what their circumstances are like, the judges will literally ask you for whats in your pockets and if you don't have enough you get sent to jail.....
I think the intended audience for this article is for most of us, middle class to lower class. Those who live paycheck to paycheck. I think what is happening here is very wrong. They are literally trapping people in a losing battle.
As for the author Scott Henson, aka, Grits for Breakfast Credibility he was a former journalist and a political opposition researcher and has had years of experience under his belt. For his full credentials you can click (here)
