DEBTORS PRISON NOW IN THE UNITED STATES!

First Obamavilles, Now Debtors Prisons!

Another sign of the times: Debtors are being jailed, in record numbers, for failing to pay credit card and other debts, which have been taken over by debt collection agencies, that buy up uncollected consumer debts at pennies on the dollar, and abuse an already stressed law enforcement and judicial system, to force debt payments by getting people arrested and jailed. On July 9, the Minneapolis Star Tribune published a lengthy expose of just such debtor prison policies in Minnesota, and in other states around the country, including Arkansas, Arizona, and Washington. "In Illinois and southwest Indiana, some judges jail debtors for missing court-ordered debt payments. In extreme cases, people stay in jail until they raise a minimum payment. In January, a judge sentenced a Kenney, Ill., man 'to indefinite incarceration' until he came up with $300 toward a lumber yard debt," the Star Tribune reported. "The laws allowing for the arrest of someone for an unpaid debt are not new. What is new is the rise of well-funded, aggressive and centralized collection firms, in many cases run by attorneys, that buy up unpaid debt and use the courts to collect."

The report cited three Minnesota companies that have been driving the new debtors prison schemes: Unifund CCR Partners, Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc. and Debt Equities LLC. Portfolio Recovery Associates, based in Norfolk, Va., is a publicly traded company, which earned $44 million in profits in 2009, on $281 million in revenue—i.e., collections.

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[link to larouchepac.com]