Progress on Carceral Debt
Here is a wonderful article from Rachel Cohen of The Intercept. It highlights recent efforts to cancel carceral debt – such as probation fees, bail bond fees, and charges for daily incarceration.
Carceral debt came to light following Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri in 2015. A legal advocacy group (ArchCity Defenders) reported that Ferguson had issued almost 33,000 arrest warrants in 2013 — in a city of 21,000 people.
A class-action lawsuit charged Ferguson with being a modern debtors’ prison, where individuals were routinely jailed for their inability to pay court fees.
Cash-strapped municipalities like Ferguson had borrowed heavily over the years to fund basic services. In order to pay back creditors, they began more aggressively extracting revenue from some of their poorest residents. God forbid that they raise taxes on the middle or upper classes!
This article introduces several key players in the anti-debt movement today:
- The Debt Collective (founded by Hannah Appel and Astra Taylor)
- Justice Catalyst
- Rolling Jubilee Fund
- Future Justice Fund
https://theintercept.com/2021/10/29/debt-cancellation-carceral-bail/
The Ferguson arrest warrants vs population is absurd! Definitely a sign of a broken justice system – justice for the creditors but not for the people.
Right on!
Here, the city is the major creditor. The city is creating debt for the poor, because it is afraid to bump up taxes on the middle and upper class.
Usually when this happens, the extra taxes needed are quite small. The Republican orthodoxy of “no new taxes” has real-life victims.
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