In Debt, In Jail

Via Jim F. over at BooMan's place comes this story about the rise of arrest warrants being served against people who owe credit card 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.

Not every warrant results in an arrest, but in Minnesota many debtors spend up to 48 hours in cells with criminals. Consumer attorneys say such arrests are increasing in many states, including Arkansas, Arizona and Washington, driven by a bad economy, high consumer debt and a growing industry that buys bad debts and employs every means available to collect.

The Coalition of the Mean has decided it's cheaper to throw you in the county lock-up for 48 hours than extend unemployment benefits.  It's also easier to pay the state to rough up your more financially delinquent clients and hope they get the message.  And you though mob loan sharks and bookies were a tough bunch.

After all, there are people who want that 48 hour maximum to go away.



Minimum security debtor's prisons owned and operated by private companies...that's the kind of thing I see coming very, very soon. What better way to terrify the country into thinking the national debt is our most dreaded crisis in 2010 than to criminalize personal debt?