Reformers Seek to Undo Growth of New 'Debtors' Prisons'

[Barrister]

That being said:

Amanda Underwood, a 35-year-old mother of five and fast-food worker

Why the fuck a fast food worker has 5 children is beyond me?

Somebody has to. You rich lawyers aren't doing it.

I'm doing my part.

[Barrister]

As for the OP, it's something the court struggles with.

There is a small portion of the population that is indigent.  They are either completely homeless, or couch surfing.  And while some of those people are mostly law-abiding, others simply don't care.  That's not to say that they are beating people up and committing major offences, but they routinely rack up tickets for trespassing, jaywalking, riding the LRT without a fare, littering and other such nuisance offences.  You can't let such offences go completely unpunished, but you don't want to send people to jail for them either.

There exists a "fine option program" to work off fines, but that requires some basic skills like being able to keep appointments.

So for a certain set of people, they accumulate a series of tickets, they get fines, they don't pay their fines by the deadline, then they get picked up and do jail time in lieu of payment.  I think it's a lot closer to $100 / day - $20 / day is ridiculous.

It's not a good solution at all.  If someone can suggest a better one I'm all ears.

[The Brain]

  You can't let such offences go completely unpunished, but you don't want to send people to jail for them either.

You're absolutely correct. You want to send them to gaol.

[dps]

John Oliver's report on this issue from a few months ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjpmT5noto

John Oliver addressed another issue that the article does not seem to mention - i.e. that failure to pay a fine would result in an additional fine, creating a vicious circle (and thus making it more similar to debtor's prison).

If the situation is more like described in the article (i.e. you get a fine and if you do not pay you simply go to jail in lieu of the fine but failure to pay the fine is not treated - and punished - as a separate offense) then I am inclined to agree with what Yi and dps said.

It varies as to whether or not failure to pay the fine is treated as a separate offense.  I agree with you that it should not be (though maybe it should be means-tested--if a well-off person who could easily pay the fine is just blowing it off, I wouldn't mind seeing them slapped with an additional charge).