The Classic Liberal Blog

During the Middle Ages, debtors, both men and women, were arrested and locked up until their debts were paid. Being difficult (if not impossible) to pay off debt while in prison, debtors often died while imprisoned of disease, starvation and abuse. The families of the prisoners suffered great hardships too, falling into poverty because the main bread winner was locked up in jail.

Sometimes debt prisoners would be released, in debt bondage, as indentured servants until their debts were paid off in labor. By the early 19th century, debt prisons were eradicated in America. But now it appears they're making a comeback.

In jail for being in debt

As a sheriff's deputy dumped the contents of Joy Uhlmeyer's purse into a sealed bag, she begged to know why she had just been arrested while driving home to Richfield after an Easter visit with her elderly mother.

No one had an answer. Uhlmeyer spent a sleepless night in a frigid Anoka County holding cell, her hands tucked under her armpits for warmth. Then, handcuffed in a squad car, she was taken to downtown Minneapolis for booking. Finally, after 16 hours in limbo, jail officials fingerprinted Uhlmeyer and explained her offense -- missing a court hearing over an unpaid debt. "They have no right to do this to me," said the 57-year-old patient care advocate, her voice as soft as a whisper. "Not for a stupid credit card."

It's not a crime to owe money, and debtors' prisons were abolished in the United States in the 19th century. But people are routinely being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years, with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has found.

Joy Uhlmeyer defaulted on a Chase credit card for $6,200, but Resurgence Financial was the company attempting to collect (and issued the warrant). How much of the $6,00 consisted of various collection and court fees was undisclosed.

Uhlmeyer's default was the result of a costly divorce, and for this she was handcuffed and detained for 16 hours before anyone bothered to explain her offense. Guilty until proven innocent, and we're not even going to tell you what you're guilty of. Uhlmeyer was eventually released after her nephew posted $2,500 bail, when she then paid an additional $187 to get her car out of impound.

Another Minnesota resident, Deborah Poplawski, was locked up for owing a mere $250!

One afternoon last spring, Deborah Poplawski, 38, of Minneapolis was digging in her purse for coins to feed a downtown parking meter when she saw the flashing lights of a Minneapolis police squad car behind her. Poplawski, a restaurant cook, assumed she had parked illegally. Instead, she was headed to jail over a $250 credit card debt.

Less than a month earlier, she learned by chance from an employment counselor that she had an outstanding warrant. Debt Equities, a Golden Valley debt buyer, had sued her, but she says nobody served her with court documents. Thanks to interest and fees, Poplawski was now on the hook for $1,138.

Though she knew of the warrant and unpaid debt, "I wasn't equating the warrant with going to jail, because there wasn't criminal activity associated with it," she said. "I just thought it was a civil thing."

She spent nearly 25 hours at the Hennepin County jail.

As America heads deeper into economic depression, one has to wonder how more prevalent modern debt prisoners will become. It's frightening. Everyday there are new stories of lawless police, lawless courts, and lawless politicians. The "land of the free" has become anything but.

The Return of Debtors’ Prisons in Louisiana

Inmate isn’t a money-making profession, which helps explain why states outlawed debtors’ prisons in the 1830s ... But while poverty is no longer a crime, at least not officially, two new studies suggest that the practice of locking up debtors is becoming more common. In separate efforts, the American Civil Liberties Union and Brennan Center for Justice at New York University spent a year observing court cases and interviewing hundreds of defenders, prosecutors, and the accused. The results ... show a troubling pattern of incarceration in at least 16 states, where even minor, nonviolent offenses such as speeding and loitering result in prison time for the poor.

The reason, according to the reports, is that courts indiscriminately slap fines on impoverished defendants, triggering an endless cycle of legal jeopardy. Failure to pay a ticket, for example, results in an arrest warrant, and a second failure to pay can lead to prison. The crime is coded as “contempt” for court or “failure to appear,” making it hard to determine the total number of poverty-related sentences.

But what’s driving the sentences, at least in part, isn’t morality so much as economics. In recent years, state funding has slowed for virtually every court in the country, making fines an essential means of keeping the gavel clapping. In a memo obtained by the ACLU, the Michigan courts administrator is brutally clear, reminding judges of "tough economic times" and urging a "culture shift" toward pay-or-prison collection tactics.

It's a "cultural shift" alright ... towards a lawless police state that is.

America's founding generations have been spit upon. Now that the greed of politicians and their banking cronies have effectively broken the backs of tens of millions, sending legions of good citizens into poverty, they're now indiscriminately, and in some cases indefinitely, locking their victims up.

Welcome to post-free America.