No one goes to jail over debt, right?

Glaucus

Glaucus

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In jail for being in debt

As a sheriff's deputy dumped the contents of Joy Uhlmeyer's purse into a sealed bag, she begged to know why she had just been arrested while driving home to Richfield after an Easter visit with her elderly mother.

No one had an answer. Uhlmeyer spent a sleepless night in a frigid Anoka County holding cell, her hands tucked under her armpits for warmth. Then, handcuffed in a squad car, she was taken to downtown Minneapolis for booking. Finally, after 16 hours in limbo, jail officials fingerprinted Uhlmeyer and explained her offense -- missing a court hearing over an unpaid debt. "They have no right to do this to me," said the 57-year-old patient care advocate, her voice as soft as a whisper. "Not for a stupid credit card."
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Almost makes the movie Repo Men seem almost within the realm of possibility.
 
Glaucus said:
Almost makes the movie Repo Men seem almost within the realm of possibility.
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First things first, debtor prison will make a comeback.
 
Well, she wasn't picked up for debt. She was picked up for missing her court hearing. That's a pretty big difference. And, to actually manage to attract enough attention to warrant being picked up for missing that court hearing, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that isn't the first one she's blown off. Being picked up for debt, and being picked up for blowing off a court appearance about debt may sound similar, but if you don't make that distinction, you could say people go to jail over double-parking, or any other number of ridiculous things.

If she showed up for her hearing and at the end of it they led her out in cuffs, THEN I'd be up in arms, BIG TIME! But, that isn't what happened here.
 
ilwrath said:
Well, she wasn't picked up for debt. She was picked up for missing her court hearing. That's a pretty big difference. And, to actually manage to attract enough attention to warrant being picked up for missing that court hearing, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that isn't the first one she's blown off. Being picked up for debt, and being picked up for blowing off a court appearance about debt may sound similar, but if you don't make that distinction, you could say people go to jail over double-parking, or any other number of ridiculous things.

If she showed up for her hearing and at the end of it they led her out in cuffs, THEN I'd be up in arms, BIG TIME! But, that isn't what happened here.
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I guess you miss in the article where if you do show up, the court requires you to fill out paperwork detailing all of your financed and account information. This is in turn passed on to the creditors who use it to seize accounts and garnish wages. This should not be allowed to happen.
 
I guess you miss in the article where if you do show up, the court requires you to fill out paperwork detailing all of your financed and account information. This is in turn passed on to the creditors who use it to seize accounts and garnish wages. This should not be allowed to happen.
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Well, creditors are free to seize whatever they want while having to prove the bare minimum, if that. And if they screw up and seize the wrong thing or screw up the identity or are working off outdated records, the victim has to foot the bill, time, and effort to sort it out, while the creditor basically gets off with a free pass. The civil system is a complete mess. THIS is something certainly worth getting up in arms about. I don't disagree with you there.

It's still not going to jail over debt, though. If you want to get up in arms about something, at least get up in arms about the right thing. :D
 
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