Sunday, September 24, 2006

Getting Back To The Good Old Days

Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge. ... "And the Union workhouses?" demanded
Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"

Do you wonder why our jails are crowded?

A Georgia woman was jailed for 14 months because she was unable to pay her $700 fine.
She served the sentence at Atlanta's Gateway Diversion Center, a halfway house
that allows its inmates out on day-release to work as long as they pay room and
board. Hurley, 45, worked at a restaurant earning $700 a month and was
supposed to pay the fine with that money, according to a petition filed this
week. But monthly bills including a $600 payment to the center and $52 for
transportation left her with only $23.22, out of which she also had to buy soap,
toothpaste and other items.
The story goes on...
Hurley said she paid $7,643 in all but nobody explained why so little of that
money went toward paying off the debt.

No comments: