All the due process money can buy

[questionseverything]

In some states, defendants pay additional fees to enroll in an installment plan to pay court costs or fines, and they are charged interest on the unpaid amounts. Those who cannot afford an alternative to detention may end up back in detention. For example, in 2012 a man in Georgia was detained for stealing a can of beer. The judge ordered that he could stay out of jail if he wore an electronic monitoring device. But the defendant could not afford to pay $360 a month for it, so he was jailed.

Poor defendants who fail to pay fines or fees may be held in contempt of court. For those on probation, failure to make payments on time can mean violation of probation. Both offenses can send people back to detention.

Pay-to-stay prison programs, court costs and fines make a mockery of the promise of equal justice under law. They also highlight the unequal impact of the criminal justice system on rich and poor. Poor people — who make up the vast majority of those serving time in detention or outside on probation or parole — simply can’t afford the cost of justice.

By contrast, rich people can buy preferential treatment from prison authorities. For example, in 2012, Michael Keating was convicted in California for a 2010 drunk driving incident that killed his classmate. Keating’s family paid $72,000 for him to serve his four-year sentence at a pay-to-stay facility with a TV, full-size fridge and phone, instead of at a state prison. A number of California jails offer upgrades for cash payments. It’s a matter of time before these high-priced, income-generating upgrades spread across the country. In theory, the upgrades are available to all inmates who fear the dangers of regular prisons, but they are available only to people with the money to pay.

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/7/all-the-due-process-money-can-buy.html

[PatrickforO]

1. Capitalism is a cancer on this nation. It runs directly counter to

common decency. For profit prisons should NEVER exist and 'pay to stay' is a horrible injustice perpetrated on the poor.

[questionseverything]

2. prisons should be there only to keep dangerous people out of society

not be used as a source of revenue

http://www.care2.com/causes/for-profit-prisons-8-statistics-that-show-the-problems.html

11 Times

Violent crimes are down overall, so how does the United States keep prisons stocked instead? Amplifying the war on drugs: there are now 11 times as many people in jail for drug convictions than there were in 1980, constituting 50% of the prison population. Longer mandatory minimum sentences also keeps the inmates in longer. Most people incarcerated for drug charges are non-violent, have no prior record, and are addicts rather than major drug-traffickers.

[bvar22]

3. - “It ain't a crime to be poor in America,

... but it may as well be.”-–Will Rodgers

Times have changed since Will Rodgers.
Now, it IS a crime to be poor in America.

[questionseverything]

4. it is criminal what is done to the poor

put in prison for not being able to pay traffic tickets, for not paying your court costs on time,the list goes on and on

but the crime does not stop there...the taxpayers paying for those folks to be locked up when it is not at all necessary is stealing food out of our children's mouths

500,000 non violent "criminals" locked up @ $30,000 a year would buy lots of rice and beans