One of the first things that a person that is contemplating a lawsuit that involves monetary compensation as being enforced for restitution, needs to think about, is that there usually isn’t any good point in suing someone that doesn’t have the ready funds to make that payment. Yet, for some reason, the target that the justice system seems to take inordinate pleasure in charging court fines, fees, interest, penalties, collection costs, and surcharges, are typically people that have a net worth that is zero or thereabouts, and are already in rather dire straits; but since they have been convicted of some sort of offense, this is therefore seen as the price that so needs to be paid for their subsequent “freedom.”
It would seem that it isn’t so much “don’t do the crime if you’re not willing to do the time,” but rather this is more akin, to the justice system trying to make a profit from impoverished convicts, or to get some sort of payback from those that are already disadvantaged and poor. It would seem far better to admit that those that cry the loudest for “law and order” are the very people that should actually pay the fines and surcharges so being currently assessed against the forsaken and destitute convicts; representing, in truth, the fair price of that justice having been enforced in the first place, on their behalf.
The justice system as meted out in America, seems to favor overwhelmingly those that have money in their pocket as compared to all those that don’t. After all, those that have money typically have the room to maneuver and to negotiate terms; whereas, those that do not, are at the mercy of the court, that seems not to take into fair consideration the reality of this salient fact, that many of those convicted of crimes, are effectively broke, and also without promising prospects.
No great nation, builds their foundation and their greatness upon the backs of those that are the most vulnerable; but rather they take into reasonable consideration, the circumstances that has brought those with little or nothing to their name, to that unfortunate place that they never wanted to be at. Those that insist that a significant portion of those convicted of crimes should be financially punished until the end of time, aren’t just and they sure aren’t right. To kick someone when they are down, over and over again, is not only abuse but it is bullying; and it also is not becoming of a nation that purports to represent progress, as well as equal justice under the law.
No doubt, the justice system and the carceral state is a beast that needs to be fed; but why must it feed exclusively upon those that have no real meat? Rather, America needs to reform itself, and get back to the very basics, of understanding that institutions which are supposed to represent justice, but somehow are never satiated, are destructive to the core of American values, and it is those misguided and misbegotten institutions, that need themselves, to be reformed.