Are debtors’ prisons returning?

In Ferguson, Missouri, the equivalent of 75% of the city’s population had outstanding arrest warrants. These warrants were not for committing a crime but for failing to appear in court or not paying traffic and parking violations. According to a U.S. Department of Justice report, in a city of 21,000 residents, the Ferguson Police Department issued 33,000 arrests warrants for unpaid tickets in 2013 alone.

In Illinois, the Department of Corrections charged a man $20,000 to cover the cost of his incarceration, according to the Chicago Tribune. Homeless and practically destitute after recently serving a 15-month prison sentence for a nonviolent drug offense, he had no ability to pay his fine. If he had not died in June, it is likely he would have been locked up for his inability to pay.

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