Texas Observe released an article “TexasSupreme Court Justice, House Corrections Chair Want to End ‘Unconstitutional’Practice of Debtors’ Prison”; by Sam DeGrave that claims that Republicans want
to dismantle jailing someone for not being able to pay his or her fine.
The article
talks about how people get thrown in jail for not being able to pay their legal
fines. Most U.S. Supreme Courts say it is unconstitutional, and it cost a lot
of money. In Texas, it cost $60 a day to
hold someone in jail says Mary Mergler, a Texas Appleseed attorney. Think about
how many people are thrown in jail for suspended license, no car insurance,
P.O.M, etc., now think about the amount of time they could spend in jail by trying
to come up with the money. Some can be there for about 10 days. If there are multiple people staying for
about 10 days that could cost thousands or millions of dollars. Mergler
included that sending people to jail for not being to pay fines is one of the
way the court system punish people based on the amount of money they have.
Along
with the beliefs of DeGrave, some Republicans, and Mergler sending someone to
jail because they can’t afford to pay their fines is wrong and
unconstitutional. Now there is a difference in not being able to pay and not
wanting to pay.
Sam DeGrave
put this article together really well. He gave background information on the
situation and gave a clear argument that this is not right. Most people can
differ that we do need to throw them in jail, but that’s what makes an argument.
