Freedom, Debt and Democracy...

This is about the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is all about exploiting the capitalist game they call democracy and promoting corporate agendas. Seemed like an appropriate tune for the "land of the free" today in particular - if you can call sheep and slaves "free"...

Padded with power here they come
International loan sharks backed by the guns
Of market hungry military profiteers
Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared
With the blood of the poor

Who rob life of its quality
Who render rage a necessity
By turning countries into labour camps
Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom

Sinister cynical instrument
Who makes the gun into a sacrament --
The only response to the deification
Of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations'
Idolatry of ideology

North South East West
Kill the best and buy the rest
It's just spend a buck to make a buck
You don't really give a flying fuck
About the people in misery

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

See the paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
Open for business like a cheap bordello

And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy

See the loaded eyes of the children too
Trying to make the best of it the way kids do
One day you're going to rise from your habitual feast
To find yourself staring down the throat of the beast
They call the revolution

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

Poverty in America is a crime: Debtors prisons on the rise.

Check out the reports this article links to below. Seems to be a real problem in Arizona too, with parolees and probationers being reincarcerated for not making their restitution and court payments - some preferring to work off their time back in prison because they can't support their families with the court-imposed debts and jail fees, etc.

So, if they can't collect a few hundred bucks from an impoverished felon, the state removes him from his family, community, and the workforce (where, with a criminal record he can only get jobs that pay dirt) and pays $21,000/year to punish him for being poor, stigmatized, and marginalized - therefore perpetuating the problem (and the budget crisis) - just to give people like Arpaio a few extra pennies a year to misappropriate.

Real bright, Arizona. You sure showed those criminals.

So, other than collection agencies and some jails (if they can take in more than the shell out by rounding up their debtors when they can't pay), I wonder who would profit from these kinds of laws, then. Private prisons, perhaps? Would be interesting to see just what all the private prison lobby is up to. They have to keep finding more reasons to justify imprisoning people, since states around the country (except Arizona) are trying to reduce incarceration in other ways, and private prisons are emptying...I bet we see more go into the business of running local jails soon - and aggressively pushing for these kinds of laws.

------------------ACLU------------------

ACLU And Brennan Center Reports Expose Resurgence Of Debtors' Prisons

October 4, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – Poor defendants are being jailed at increasingly alarming rates for failing to pay legal debts they can never hope to afford, according to two new reports released today by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Brennan Center for Justice.

The reports detail how states across the country, in the face of mounting budget deficits, are more aggressively going after poor people who have already served their criminal sentences, and in so doing undermining re-entry prospects, paving the way back to prison or jail and burdening the public with yet more costs.

"Incarcerating people simply because they cannot afford to pay their legal debts is not only unconstitutional but also has a devastating impact upon men and women, whose only crime is that they are poor," said Eric Balaban, senior staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project.

The ACLU report, "In for a Penny: The Rise of America's New Debtors' Prisons," and the Brennan Center report, "The Hidden Cost of Criminal Justice Debt," show how the resurgent phenomenon of imprisoning people who are unable to pay fines and court fees is in fact counterproductive. States and counties, hard pressed to find revenue to shore up failing budgets, see a ready source of funds in defendants who can be assessed financial penalties above and beyond their criminal sentences that must be repaid upon pain of imprisonment.

"We are undermining the integrity of our criminal justice system and creating a two-tiered system of justice in which the poorest among us are punished more harshly than those with means, at a great cost to taxpayers," said Vanita Gupta, Deputy Legal Director for the ACLU. "The rise of these debtors' prisons also has a disproportionate impact on people of color, who are overrepresented in the criminal justice system."

Kawana Young, a 25-year-old single mother of two in Michigan, accumulated a few minor traffic infractions for which she was given fines that she could not afford to pay. She attempted to pay off her debt by doing community service, was told after the fact that her service at an elderly living center would not count because the center was not a non-profit and, as a result, has been jailed five times for failing to pay her debt.

"I just need a chance to do right," Young said. "It doesn't make sense to jail people when they can't pay because they definitely can't pay while they're in jail."

There is nothing to suggest that aggressively seeking to collect unpaid legal debt actually makes any money – incarcerating indigent defendants for failing to pay their legal debts in fact ends up costing states and counties much more than they can ever hope to recover. In one two-week period last May, for example, 16 men in New Orleans were sentenced to serve jail time for failing to pay legal debts. Their incarceration cost the city of New Orleans over $1,000 more than their total unpaid debt. A man in Washington State was jailed for two weeks for owing $60 in debt and an Ohio woman was jailed for a month because of an unpaid legal debt of just $250.

Yet because so many court and criminal justice systems are inadequately funded, judges view the collection of legal debt as a critical revenue stream. In New Orleans, for example, legal fines and fees make up nearly two-thirds of the criminal court's general operating budget.

The imposition of court fines and fees also creates significant barriers for people seeking to rebuild their lives after a criminal conviction. Eight of the 15 states studied by the Brennan Center, for example, suspend driving privileges for missed debt payments, a practice that can make it impossible for people to work and that can lead to new convictions for driving with a suspended license. Seven states studied by the Brennan Center require individuals to pay off criminal justice debt before they can regain their eligibility to vote after a conviction. And in all 15 states, criminal justice debt and associated collection practices can damage credit and interfere with other commitments, such as child support obligations.

"People are emerging from the criminal justice process with significant debts that they cannot hope to repay," said Rebekah Diller, Deputy Director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center. "As a result, these fees are creating new paths back to prison for those unable to pay."

A copy of the ACLU report "In for a Penny: The Rise of America's New Debtors' Prisons," is available online at: www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights-racial-justice/penny-rise-americas-new-debtors-prisons

A copy of the Brennan Center report, "The Hidden Cost of Criminal Justice Debt," is available online at: www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/criminal_justice_debt_a_barrier_to_reentry/

Published on American Civil Liberties Union (http://www.aclu.org)