Winehole23
10-09-2015, 12:24 PM
Unpaid fines are a vexing (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/us/court-conundrum-offenders-who-cant-pay-or-wont.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share) problem (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/another-state-faces-allegations-illegally-jailing-poor-n431741) for municipalities (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/09/03/how-st-louis-county-missouri-profits-from-poverty/) across (http://www.alabamanews.net/home/top-stories/Lawsuit-Claims-Montgomery-Has-Debtors-Prison-312622701.html) the country (http://www.npr.org/2014/05/19/312158516/increasing-court-fees-punish-the-poor), and uninsured drivers can indeed be a hazard (http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/crime-law/damage-from-uninsured-unlicensed-drivers-lasts-wel/nns98/), but Texas law leaves no doubt as to how courts must handle someone who has been arrested for unpaid fines. And it provides an unambiguous, step-by-step process that includes an alternative punishment for those too poor to pay their fines.
First, before ordering a defendant to jail, a judge must hold a hearing (http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/CR/htm/CR.45.htm#45.046) to assess their finances. If the defendant is too poor to pay, the judge must offer community service instead. An indigent person can only be jailed if they have “failed to make a good faith effort” to do the community service. The result of the hearing must be put in writing.
All this is clearly laid out in Texas statutes — as well as in an official instruction manual (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2435027-tmcec-bench-book-2013.html#document/p93/a245746) for judges — and many of the state’s more than 2,100 judges who handle traffic violations and other petty offenses do follow the law.
But many don’t. In El Paso, where 1 in 5 people live below the poverty line, judges at the municipal court regularly send people to jail without holding a poverty hearing or offering community service. BuzzFeed News reviewed 100 of the court’s case files for people jailed for at least five days last year. Not a single one indicated that the judge had considered — or even inquired about — the defendant’s ability to pay before locking them up.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/kendalltaggart/in-texas-its-a-crime-to-be-poor
First, before ordering a defendant to jail, a judge must hold a hearing (http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/CR/htm/CR.45.htm#45.046) to assess their finances. If the defendant is too poor to pay, the judge must offer community service instead. An indigent person can only be jailed if they have “failed to make a good faith effort” to do the community service. The result of the hearing must be put in writing.
All this is clearly laid out in Texas statutes — as well as in an official instruction manual (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2435027-tmcec-bench-book-2013.html#document/p93/a245746) for judges — and many of the state’s more than 2,100 judges who handle traffic violations and other petty offenses do follow the law.
But many don’t. In El Paso, where 1 in 5 people live below the poverty line, judges at the municipal court regularly send people to jail without holding a poverty hearing or offering community service. BuzzFeed News reviewed 100 of the court’s case files for people jailed for at least five days last year. Not a single one indicated that the judge had considered — or even inquired about — the defendant’s ability to pay before locking them up.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/kendalltaggart/in-texas-its-a-crime-to-be-poor