debtors' prison in the united states, why?
It's weird, I thought I read somewhere in the us constitution that a debtors' prison is forbidden. All I find is amendment 13 which abolishes slavery, that in itself should be a law against debtors prison.. Yet I hear about people in jail who owe money, examples:, fines,IRS, alimony, child support etc. It makes me sick. That basically says that it is ,in fact ,illegal to be poor in America!!! What can we as a people do to be free of such a horrible thing? Or are we just completely screwed?
Law & Ethics - 5 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
It's not debtors prison because they aren't working off their fines, they are going to jail for a refusal to pay those fines
2 :
your source is for the most part crap. YOu do not go to jail for a debt. You may go to jail for refusing to deal with the debt. YOu go to jail for contempt of court for refusing to pay child support; not for owing it. Not being unable; refusing, The poor, are pretty much not the parties you seem to think are being jailed. If you are REFUSING to pay cort ordered child support, you should be in jail.
3 :
people need to pay their debts off. Point blank. Take responsibility for their own actions.
4 :
It's easy, support the children you breed and don't screw with the IRS. You cannot go to prison if you default on a credit card.
5 :
What are you talking about? I've never heard of debtors prison here in the USA. The reason being, there isn't any, period. Yes people go to jail for defrauding others thru investments and such. If you commit any infraction, then yes you can and will go to jail for refusal to pay. Now as for alimony, each State is different in this. Some require you to pay and some don't. I have a friend that was in the military, his ex-wife is a resident of a State that requires lifetime payments of alimony after a divorce. The State that he was a resident in, requires maintenance payments for 5 years and nothing more. She got the 5 years, but as long as he remains a resident of his home State, then he's not required to pay her more. Yes, that was proven in court. There is really no law on the books that says that we have to pay income taxes. But, after we do our 'first' tax return, there is a statement saying that we agree that we owe income taxes, when we sign it. Perjury comes into this here. Now child support? A child is not a debt, but a commitment. Yes, you can go to jail for not paying.
