It's a common saying: You do the crime, you do the time. But when people are released from prison, freedom is fragmented. It marks the start of new hardships, impacting families and communities.
  • blobjim [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    32·
    7 months ago

    Isn’t this also one of the ways they prevent former prisoners from voting, ever since people in Florida vote to allow former prisoners to vote?

    • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      35·
      7 months ago

      yes. once the population voted to pass a self-executing ballot initiative to restore voting rights to released prisoners, the legislature decided that meant that it was only true if said prisoner no longer had any debts to the carceral state or its 3rd party billing organizations. it also decided that any released prisoner who registered to vote with any owed balance to these organizations would be guilty of a felony and sent back to jail.

      it should also be noted that there is not a central repository that tracks what prisoners owe. it is a patchwork system where often people describe inaccurate and outdated information is rampant and professional investigators had a difficult time working on behalf of someone trying to find out what their status was.

      this is the state that had its supreme court appoint the president of the US in 2000.

      but anyway vote because Our Democracy™ is in danger of going away!

      • LaughingLion [any, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        6·
        7 months ago

        florida man here

        its so much worse than that.

        last month my wife got a bill for a traffic stop she paid off 15 years ago

        we have no way to prove that except they are like yeah you owed like $2 but 15 years of interest so pay $40 or you can spend even more to fight this and not pay it

        i dont even think its malice its just how incompetent they are

        we also got sent the ticket 2 years ago for an accident she got in like 5 years prior. the ticket was for the other driver dunno why it was sent to her and we had to call that one in and straighten it out. also we received that ticket like 3 weeks after i attended a blm protest in her car.