Week 8 Post 1 - Not a Crime to Be Poor By Peter Edelman

Section 1 : Ferguson is Everywhere

• Bearden v. Georgia (1983) - decided "punishing a person for his poverty" violates the equal protection clause and that a poor defendant may not be jailed for an inability to pay a fine unless they have "willfully refused to pay the fine or restitution when he has the means to pay" The Supreme Court however has not given the most clear guidance as to what "willfully refused" means, giving judges plenty of room to put in their own interpretations, judge in Illinois asked all defendants if they smoked, if answer was yes the judge said they had means to pay regardless of income or fine
• Two trends accelerated in the 1990s: sky-high fines and fees for minor infractions (increasing number of cases)
• Ferguson charged fines of up to $531 for "high grass and weeds" in a persons yard
• Tulsa World (Oklahoma) reported about 28% of the nearly 23,000 booked into the Tulsa jail in 2014 were arrested on court-debt related complaints, up from 8% in 2004 
• "Offender-funded probation" or "pay-only probation" May be done instead of jailing defendant at time of conviction when they cannot pay the fine, placing them on probation after they sign a payment plan that adds another $40 a month or more (plus interest on the debt)
• Number of people on probation was roughly 800,000 adults in 1977 to more than 4 million in 2010
• Judges are quick to suspend licenses, and more than 75% of people drive on a suspended license in order to get to work, appointments, get kids from school etc. 
• As of 2015 more than 4 mill people in California had lost their drivers license for a fine not being paid on time (most cases for an infraction not related to driving) 
• Florida sends people to prison for 5 years if you are caught driving on a suspended license 3 times, even if you have no other option 
• National New York Times survey of 200 defense lawyers, two-thirds said their clients were effectively barred from diversion programs by the fees