Debtor's Prisons Make a Comeback in U.S.

If you don't believe me, come with me to the county jail in Tulsa. On the day I visited, 23 people were incarcerated for failure to pay government fines and fees, including one woman imprisoned because she couldn't pay a fine for lacking a license plate.

I sat in the jail with Rosalind Hall, 53, a warm, mild-mannered woman with graying hair who has been imprisoned for a total of almost 18 months, in short stints, simply for failing to pay a blizzard of fines and fees relating to petty crimes (for which she separately served time). Hall has struggled for three decades with mental illness and drug addictions and has a long history of shoplifting to pay for drugs, but no violent record... This time, she had already spent 10 days in jail for failing to pay restitution for five bad checks written eight years ago to a grocery store. The bad checks totaled a bit more than $100, but with fees and charges added on she still owes $1,200 in restitution on them -- and that's after eight years of making payments.''

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Jill Webb, a public defender [says] "The only reason these people are in jail is that they can't pay their fines... Not only that, but we're paying $64 a day to keep them in jail -- not because of what they've done, but because they're poor."