Chicago DUI can lead to debtor's prison, or worse

As I posted before a Chicago DUI can cost over $2,500.00 in court fees and fines. That does not include the required fees associated with a BAIID device, license reinstatement, alcohol counseling, or drug testing that are frequently ordered in first-time Chicago DUI offender pleas of guilty or findings of guilty. The New York Times included an editorial on the creation of debtors' prisons. The debt in question is usually one owed to the prison, not to a creditor.

April 6, New York, NY

Edwina Nowlin, a poor Michigan resident, was ordered to reimburse a juvenile detention center $104 a month for holding her 16-year-old son. When she explained to the court that she could not afford to pay, Ms. Nowlin was sent to prison. The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, which helped get her out last week after she spent 28 days behind bars, says it is seeing more people being sent to jail because they cannot make various court-ordered payments. That is both barbaric and unconstitutional.

In 1970, the Supreme Court ruled that it violates equal protection to keep inmates in prison extra time because they are too poor to pay a fine or court costs. More recently, the court ruled that a state generally cannot revoke a defendant’s probation and imprison him for failing to pay a fine if he is unable to do so.

So you are wondering if Chicago is as ridiculous as Michigan was with Ms. Nowlin? Well, they don't generally put you in jail, but they will revoke court supervision. In Illinois, if you lose court supervision, your driving privileges are revoked. Even if you subsequently pay the court fees, you may not get your license back.

What do you think we should do in Chicago, during these difficult economic times when people are unable to pay their court fines and fees, do we take away their driving privileges?