Judge Richard Diment and his "debtors' prison" cases

A Surreptitious Courtroom Video Prompts Changes in a Georgia Town.  (The New York Times, 9/4/2015)

“You can pay what you have, you can call whoever you need to call, go to an A.T.M. if you need to, do what you need to do,” Judge Richard A. Diment of Bowdon Municipal Court said to one defendant. “Call friends, call family, call your employer. But until you get $300 here tonight, you won’t be able to leave.” The defendant said she had recently begun working at a supermarket and had $150 with her. 

To another defendant, a man who said he had been unemployed for two years and received food stamps, Judge Diment said: “You’re going to have to figure out a way to get this paid, do you understand me? Or you’re going to go to jail. One or the other. You understand?”

Related reading:
Debtors' Prisons.  (Southern Center for Human Rights)
Ending Modern-day Debtors' Prisons.  (American Civil Liberties Union)
Locked Up for Being Poor.  How private debt collectors contribute to a cycle of jail, unemployment, and poverty.  (The Atlantic, 2/25/2015)

Related posts:
The Developing Walker administration's corrections mantra: No pardons, no parole.  (5/6/2014)
Debtors' prisons: Not just a topic for the history books anymore.  (2/10/2013)
Lesson two in privatization: Community probation services.  (7/7/2012)