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Debtors "Prison"--Prisoners' Accumulation of Debt as a Barrier to Reentry
Publication Date: January 2008
Publisher(s): Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law
Author(s): Vicki Turetsky; Kirsten D. Levingston
Topic: Justice (Legal procedure)
Social conditions (Public welfare and social services)
Type: Report
Coverage: United States
Abstract:
First published by the Clearinghouse Review Journal of Poverty Law and Policy in Summer 2007, this paper describes the types of criminal financial sanctions levied against people as they make their way through the criminal justice system and the child support policies that lead to unrealistic and counterproductive payment obligations. Cost-recovery policies enforced by criminal justice and child support agencies are ill-advised, undermining the criminal justice systemÂ’s rehabilitation goals, the child support system's goals to support children, and society's interest in fully reintegrating people after release from prison.