2017 marks the 175th anniversary of Pennsylvania’s 1842 statutory ban on debtors’ prisons, which implemented the prohibition that has long-existed in the Pennsylvania Constitution. But today, courts still imprison thousands of Pennsylvanians each year because of their poverty.
People who have criminal charges, municipal code violations or traffic citations collectively owe millions of dollars in fines, costs and restitution. Long after these defendants have served jail time or completed probation—and even in minor summary cases where the punishment for the underlying offense includes no jail or probation—some Pennsylvania judges do not hesitate to use their contempt powers to jail those who fail to pay, regardless of their poverty. The result is that a poor defendant’s failure to have $100 can be the difference between spending months in jail or walking free.
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