It's difficult to hear these stories and wonder if we have suddenly transported into some Dickensian nightmare:
How did breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind
bars? She didn't pay a medical bill -- one the Herrin, Ill., teaching
assistant was told she didn't owe. "She got a $280 medical bill in
error and was told she didn't have to pay it," The Associated Press
reports. "But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and
eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in
handcuffs."
Although the U.S. abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, more than
a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don't
pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit
card and auto loans. In parts of Illinois, debt collectors commonly use
publicly funded courts, sheriff's deputies, and country jails to
pressure people who owe even small amounts to pay up, according to the
AP.
Under the law, debtors aren't arrested for nonpayment, but rather
for failing to respond to court hearings, pay legal fines, or otherwise
showing "contempt of court" in connection with a creditor lawsuit.
That loophole has lawmakers in the Illinois House of Representatives
concerned enough to pass a bill in March that would make it illegal to
send residents of the state to jail if they can't pay a debt. The
measure awaits action in the senate.
Read on...
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