What do you want? Blood?

[Gob]

An Alabama judge encouraged defendants who could not pay court fines to donate blood rather than spending time in jail, a US civil rights group has said.

"If you do not have any money and you don't want to go to jail, consider giving blood today," Judge Marvin Wiggins said in a recording released by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

Some of the 500 defendants gave blood to avoid jail, but their debt remained.

The practice violates the US Constitution, legal experts said.

Judge Wiggins declined to comment on the allegations when contacted by the New York Times.

"Far too often in Alabama, we find that your legal rights are tied to your bank account," Sara Zampierin, a staff attorney in SPLC's Montgomery, Alabama, office said in a statement on Tuesday.

"It's a two-tiered system of justice - one for those who can pay and another for those who can't. We must stop exploiting the poor."

Ms Zampierin said her organisation has filed an ethics complaint against Judge Wiggins, who has served as a circuit judge in rural Perry County since 1999.

"What happened is wrong in about 3,000 ways," said Arthur Caplan, a professor of medical ethics at New York University, told the New York Times. "You're basically sentencing someone to an invasive procedure that doesn't benefit them and isn't protecting the public health."

In court on 17 September, the defendants were charged with a wide-range of crimes including hunting after dark, assault and drug possession.

The hearing was part of an aggressive effort by Alabama to collect on outstanding fines, restitution, court costs and lawyer fees.

The large legal fees and debts that some defendants incur in the US criminal justice system have received renewed attention recently.

This year a US Department of Justice report on the legal system in Ferguson, Missouri found widespread abuse. Investigators said officials unfairly targeted poor residents with fines in an effort to raise revenue for the town.

LifeSouth, the blood bank the court gave the samples to, eventually discarded nearly all of the blood units collected.

LifeSouth said it prohibits donations like the court's because the donors were offered "potentially an unacceptable incentive".

"It's a two-tiered system of justice - one for those who can pay and another for those who can't. We must stop exploiting the poor." That's got to be in the running for "most dumb thing said this year" award, surely?

[Long Run]

Creative sentencing run aground.

[Crackpot]

If it wiped out (or suitably reduced) the debt I wouldn't have a problem with it. But merely to avoid jail? That isn't alternative sentanceing that's blackmail

[rubato]

A lot of jurisdictions need to re-evaluate how they use fines and court costs as a means of further victimizing poor defendants and their families.

If I get a ticket for $500 its merely an inconvenience. If someone whose household income is <$15,000 / yr* gets one it is a catastrophe. Bills don't get paid. Cars get repossessed. Jobs are lost and the injury compounds.

yrs,
rubato


* 1 out of 5 households in America.

[dales]

THAT'S IT!

Traffic fines should reflect one's household income?

Shirley, you jest.

[rubato]

THAT'S IT!

Traffic fines should reflect one's household income?

Shirley, you jest.

It is already being done in Finland and several other countries.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/arc ... et/387484/

Finland, Home of the $103,000 Speeding Ticket

Most of Scandinavia determines fines based on income. Could such a system work in the U.S.?
Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters

Reima Kuisla, a Finnish businessman, was recently caught going 65 miles per hour in a 50 zone in his home country—an offense that would typically come with a fine of a couple hundred dollars, at most, in the U.S. But after Finnish police pulled Kuisla over, they pinged a federal taxpayer database to determine his income, consulted their handbook, and arrived at the amount that he was required to pay: €54,000.

The fine was so extreme because in Finland, some traffic fines, as well as fines for shoplifting and violating securities-exchange laws, are assessed based on earnings—and Kuisla's declared income was €6.5 million per year. Exorbitant fines like this are infrequent, but not unheard of: In 2002, a Nokia executive was fined the equivalent of $103,000 for going 45 in a 30 zone on his motorcycle, and the NHL player Teemu Selanne incurred a $39,000 fine two years earlier.

“This is no constitutionally governed state,” one Finn who was fined nearly $50,000 moaned to The Wall Street Journal, “This is a land of rhinos!” Outrage among the rich—especially nonsensical, safari-invoking outrage—might be a sign that something fair is at work.

Finland’s system for calculating fines is relatively simple: It starts with an estimate of the amount of spending money a Finn has for one day, and then divides that by two—the resulting number is considered a reasonable amount of spending money to deprive the offender of. Then, based on the severity of the crime, the system has rules for how many days the offender must go without that money. Going about 15 mph over the speed limit gets you a multiplier of 12 days, and going 25 mph over carries a 22-day multiplier.

Most reckless drivers pay between €30 and €50 per day, for a total of about €400 or €500. Finland’s maximum multiplier is 120 days, but there's no ceiling on the fines themselves—the fine is taken as a constant proportion of income whether you make €80,000 a year or €800,000. ... "

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

It is already being done in Finland and several other countries.

Their transportation system is vastly different than ours.......

[Econoline]

I miss pexxa, sometimes...

[Lord Jim]

I miss pexxa, sometimes...

I was thinking the same thing...





Come on Donner! Come on Blitzen!

[wesw]

well, as a person who has dropped below the poverty line a few years ago, I have skin in this game too (no blood tho!)

the only tickets I have gotten in recent memory are seat belt tickets.

a large speeding ticket (and I do speed very occasionally) (it s allowed if you are on your way to a fishing spot, and the tide, or the dawn, are rapidly approaching), would really put me in difficult situation financially.

I still support the law applying equally to citizens, no matter their race, creed or economic situation.

the main problem that I see is that the wealthy often go unpunished for their crimes, as do the poor.

the wall street shenanigans are dealt with financially, civilly if you will, and not viewed in the same way that theft by a poor person would be.

and the fellow who just shot an NYPD cop , had previously shot a child and went unjailed for the offense, instead he was sent into a drug diversion program. his 28 convictions would seem to say that he was not diverted.

I don t want to stick it to the wealthy..., unless they deserve it.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I wonder how much a kidney is worth? Five/ten years off your sentence?