,Debtors "Prison"--Prisoners' Accumulation of Debt as a Barrier to Reentry

Debtors "Prison"--Prisoners' Accumulation of Debt as a Barrier to Reentry


 

Publication Date: January 2008

Publisher: Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law

Author(s): Vicki Turetsky; Kirsten D. Levingston

Research Area: Justice; Social conditions

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.