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Rhode Island Passes Reform to End Debtor's Prisons

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Rhode Island Passes Reform to End Debtor's Prisons August 13, 20008 With a $400 million dollar deficit in the budget this year, the state of Rhode Island was forced to confront the spiraling $186 million dollar prison budget. One major reform was the passage of legislation to reform the process of collecting court fines. Advocates contended that the state was losing money by locking up people for owing debts to the court system for court fines and fees. As of this July, Rhode Island passed legislation to end this wasteful process. The law, which is perhaps the first in the country of its kind, was sponsored by Senator Metts of Providence and Representative O'Neil of Pawtucket. It instructs the court system to take the defendant's ability to pay into account and also limit the amount of time people are incarcerated for court debt...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on August 13, 2008 (boomark / email).