$249/day is only $31/hour, on eight hour shifts; obviously these people should go get one or two of these plentiful jobs paying $30+/hour! /s
At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
281–290 of 374 posts
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#282Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not just in the Tower - this was pretty common practice up until the mid to late Victorian era I think - eg it features in Dickens's writing to some extent.
Doesn't the US pride itself on having abolished debtor's prison due to the immorality of incarcerating people for unpaid debts? That the converse is happening; forcing people to rack up huge debts for being incarcerated seems unbelievably mean and downright farcical.
Sadly, the USA prides itself on the illusion of a lot of things it doesn't actually deliver on.
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#284Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
You cannot pay your tickets by wiring the money?
No? As far as I know that is not a thing in the US. Sometimes you can pay by credit card, but that's a more recent thing.
I have always been able to pay online, over the phone or via mail for my tickets with check, cash, card, or money order. This is in two states: California and North Carolina. For anything more serious than a speeding ticket in NC is a mandatory court visit depending on severity, California has a few more things you can just pay a fine than NC afaik.
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#286Years ago, I got a speeding ticket. I worked nights at the time, and the office to make the payment at had very strange hours because it was from a tiny town. My schedule made it difficult to make it over to the office during open hours, and one of the times I tried it was closed randomly over lunch because again, small town. (I learned later there was only one person who ran the whole office.) A day after my speedin…
I hope you learned your lesson and moved the hell out of there.
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
The office seem to cater to services where only the able and 9-5 crowd can easily access it. It seems more of a failing of this office to not provide an online alternative means to pay.
> where only the able and 9-5 crowd can easily access it I'm not sure it's conveinient for that crowd either. It's always puzzled me how you were expected to make it to government offices open roughly 9-5 while most people work those same hours.
I always assumed lunch time or day off to be used. But your right, it does seem very silly (and affects people living paycheck to paycheck the most)
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is intellectually dishonest to say drug prohibition can work in the United States. It has been tried and has failed comprehensively and over multiple generations. You are making a very different argument - that if the US was an entirely different type of society with a different government, culture and history, then this approach might work.
Do we honestly do prohibition though, or are we just running a treadmill for lower level offenders? I understand the desire to not needlessly arrest people, on the other hand, I think leaving them to their own devices so they can do drugs in campers illegally parked on the side of the street is no honestly solution either. I'm all for drug confiscation. If you're caught with drugs, we just take them and destroy them.…
So your grand solution is to... steal people's stuff?
Frankly, it sounds like you've never really researched or grappled with this particular social issue. Or participated in it.
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
It depends on answers to questions like “are these groups actually committing a disproportionate amount of the crime?” And I wouldn’t rush to the notion that you need to be justified in using hyperbolic/metaphorical language before you can criticize the problem.
Why would black or indigenous people as a group commit more crimes?
In the US, the idea is that poor people commit more crimes than rich people, and whites are more likely to be rich. Whether that is actually true, I have no idea.
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#290I actually do believe it's perfectly fair in theory to require criminals to pay for damages etc. that said, the application of all of that can be very problematic.