When you’re charged with a crime the prosecuting attorney determines your “bail” based on your past history and the circumstances of your situation. One of the saddest cases I’ve come across was a homeless man who had been charged with felony larceny (under $500). I immediately noted his bail was set as $1000 at 10% P.R. (personal recognizance). Basically, this meant that this man was going to be placed in jail until he could come up with $100 to post bail. For you and me, this may be difficult but surely after asking enough friends and family we could come up with $100. For this man, he had been in jail for nearly 3 weeks because he had no way of coming up with the money.
I flipped to the notes from the previous defense attorney on the case and all they read was “pathetic guy, pathetic case.” Great start. As I continued flipping the pages looking for the police report, I noted that this man was almost 60 years old. Flip again. His criminal history could read like a book. Flip again. Finally, the police report is visible. I start reading, and the anger swells inside of me. He was arrested for stealing $3.
No that wasn’t a typo, he stole $3 out of a local coffee shop’s tip jar – to pay for the coffee he ordered. My jaw dropped as the reality of his situation hit me, and fell to the floor when I was told he wasn’t being offered a plea deal by the prosecution. The average daily cost of an inmate in Michigan is $77. This man’s inability to come up with $100 to post bail over a crime of stealing $3 cost our government over $1600.
The idea of jail is one that has been around as long as our society can remember. When I picture this concept, I think of old western movies where a sheriff walked someone into a main street building with walls of bars and a desk letting people in an out. I think of Orange is the New Black, Prison Break, Scared Straight, highly dramatized television shows which are intended to showcase an “inner look” at our prison system.
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I’ve come to two conclusions about the objectives in prisons. One is punitive punishment and the other is rehabilitation. Punitive punishment is what your grandfather taught you growing up; an eye for an eye. You commit a crime and you get punished. But the other prison objective is rehabilitation. The goal of this punishment is reintegrating an individual into our society after they have committed a crime. It’s the idea that if we separate someone from society for committing a crime and rehabilitate them to be useful members of again, they will be less likely to commit crimes in the future.
So, as this man sat in jail for weeks, was he being set up for rehabilitation back into our society? No. So this leaves one thing: that this punishment was entirely punitive.
I agree that sometimes punitive punishment is necessary; that some individuals cannot be reintegrated back into society, that their crimes are too severe for rehabilitation. Yet what did this man do? He stole $3. So what is he really being punished for?
Through the mid 19th century a practice called debtor’s prison was in place. Basically, if you were unable to pay debt you were taken to prison until you could work your way out. Did you know that 100% of able bodied prisoners are forced to work while in prison? Did you know that the average daily wage of those prisoners is $0.93? Prisoners aren’t guaranteed the job protection that others have because the relationship between the penitentiary and the prison workers is not primarily economic, so the workers aren’t protected under legal statutes.
In Washtenaw County, the court fines for taking a plea or being charged guilty are as follows:
Jury Demand Fee: $85
Motion Fee: $20
Fines: (up to $500 for misdemeanor or $5000 for felony)
Court Costs: (range)
Attorney Fees: (range)
Minimum State Cost: $50 for misdemeanor or $86 for felony
Crime Victim Rights Assessment: $75 for misdemeanor or $130 for felony
Drivers License Clearance Fee: $45
DNA Assessment: $60
Late fee – 20% of amount owed
According to district court records, the average cost per criminal case in Washtenaw County is $1449.18
A prison inmate would have to work 1558 days to pay for the average cost of a criminal case. That comes out to over 4 years if you work every single day of the year. This is all still while you’re in jail or on probation if you didn’t have to go to jail. While on probation you are also subjected to fines relating to drug tests, mandatory visits, and any other costs associated with your probation. This is similar for prison inmates who are released from jail and subsequently go on parole; with the fines adding up day by day as soon as they are released.
What’s worth mentioning is the penalty if you’re late on payments. There are no excuses, and your payments are divided monthly by the state. Aside from the 20% late fee of the amount owed, an individual also receives a bench warrant after so many months of late payments. A bench warrant is a felony. So the process begins again…
Going back to the idea of debtor’s prisons above, it’s almost as if we’ve created this system again. We target certain races and low income people and charge them with felonies and misdemeanors, then make them pay fines knowing that they cannot. Then we make them start all over again for not paying the fines; debt accruing along the way until eventually they find ways to pay the money (drugs, stealing) or they go to prison.
Can you imagine if we took this stance against students? The average cost of tuition in state is $14,000 and out of state is $45,000. Almost every student takes out thousands of dollars in loans, a debt to banks. Yet when we are unable to pay them, when we skip a month, are we forced to pay 20% of the amount due? Or worse, are we charged with a felony bench warrant? Hell no. So why is this an appropriate method for criminals?