2 thoughts on “The ‘Poverty Trap’: How For-Profit Pretrial Services Drive Americans into Debt

  1. The system is not penalizing poverty. It is penalizing someone who broke the law. We shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the fact that the person in the article was busted for a DUI not once but twice (and those are only the times they were caught). Additionally, deamonizing a private company for doing a job for money is hypocritical. If you were to make this a government program, then it wouldnt be FREE, it would be paid by tax payers. So the question is do we want taxpayers to be responsible for the cost of releasing defendants or do we think that the defendant should be responsible for that. I vote for the defendant.

  2. Everyone should get everything for free. Who cares if the defendant goes to court? Who cares if the defendant commits more crime? Who cares if there is a victim? The issue is personal responsibility. Mr. Brown was given another opportunity. He blames the fees, whether justifiable or not, for him getting another DUI. Is there anyone in this country that does not know it is illegal to drink and drive? Does Mr. Brown care that he could have killed or hurt someone? Does the reporter care?
    I assume the for profit workers at the “non-profits” in this story believe it is perfectly acceptable for them to be paid.

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