National civil rights groups join extortion lawsuit

[patric]

"Officials across the state are running a massive enterprise to fund public services on the backs of poor Oklahomans who face threats, arrest and prolonged detention if they cannot pay escalating court fines and fees," attorney Elizabeth Rossi of Civil Rights Corps said in a statement. "This isn't only wrong, and hurting families across the state — it's unconstitutional."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/courts/plaintiffs-suing-every-oklahoma-sheriff-file-injunction-to-avoid-arrests/article_65a83edd-a08f-5e24-abf1-bab12f49636d.html



Sheriffs Association, a private group, grows rich off collection of fines, fees

The collection agency hired the most, Aberdeen Enterprizes II, was started in Tulsa in 2006 by a disbarred attorney after he was released from federal prison for bankruptcy fraud, records show.
http://newsok.com/a-private-association-of-sheriffs-has-made-millions-of-dollars-off-administrative-role-in-the-collection-of-overdue-fines-in-oklahoma-criminal-cases/article/5573540

[patric]

Modern Day Debtors Prisons
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/debtors-prison-aclu-report-details-criminalization-private-debt-n849996


...and its right up the Oklahoma Legislature's alley:


A private organization once mired in scandal has become rich, thanks to a 2010 law giving it an administrative role in the collection of overdue fines, court costs and fees in criminal cases.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/oklahoma-sheriffs-association-does-little-in-exchange-for-funds-critics/article_a478c605-2594-5e3f-8943-cc16e664b94a.html

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/oklahoma-sheriffs-upset-with-bully-legislator-who-criticized-their-private/article_6271bc6d-c9e1-5b1a-9b2c-9e2ee8846745.html

[swake]

Oklahoma is a terrible place to be poor.

[patric]

I agree that a substantive lie on a police report is a huge deal.  But in this instance, it did not end up being substantive. The officer made it dramatic, he exaggerated, or he straight up made stuff up - but it did not change the outcome of the interaction and did not have long term consequences.  Perhaps the officer was considering worse behavior, but that didn't happen and we don't punish people for considering bad behavior.   It isn't a "nothing" and we don't want it to be a norm, but I also don't think we want to open on a lane to scrutinizing reports/logs for reasons to fire officers.

Substantive whoppers speak for themselves, but a habit of lying about anything and everything with impunity says a lot about character.

Just because he didnt Holtzclaw her doesn mean we just forget about it.
Even the police chief knew he should have been fired:

Police Chief Bill Citty settles for lower-level discipline so that he has a paper trail if future problems arise.
"When I try to prove lying out of this, I'm going to tell you right now from my 40 years experience and my 14 years as being chief, I will have this shoved down my throat by an (police union) arbitrator," Citty said.
"I've had some really serious, serious events overturned by arbitrators," he said.
http://newsok.com/little-discipline-for-okc-officer-who-said-cyclist-wielded-license-as-weapon/article/55818

[patric]

Oklahoma is a terrible place to be poor.

The same day the city of Tulsa opened its municipal jail, a rule change that could help fill its cells quietly went into effect.
https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/attorneys-say-municipal-court-change-will-push-low-level-offenders-into-city-jail/

[heironymouspasparagus]

I am reminded....


But have they no refuge, no resource? Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?


Why yes...yes, there are workhouses/prisons/refuge.

[patric]

Oklahoma's use of exorbitant court fees and fines is keeping our jails full of people who should be on the street, on the job and working to support their families.

In short, our Legislature's unwillingness to fund the court system properly has turned our jails — which are meant to hold dangerous people and those at risk of fleeing to avoid prosecution — into debtor's prisons.

Fees and fines make up between 80 percent to 90 percent of the state court system's budget, according to figures calculated by Open Justice Oklahoma Director Ryan Gentzler. That incentivizes collections, not justice.

The judiciary isn't the only piece of state government that the Legislature has unnaturally hooked to the fee system. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol gets $25 from each traffic ticket, and $6 from every criminal filing goes to the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training.

For several months, an informal working group of local opinion-shapers has been gathering bi-weekly to talk about solutions. Their analysis is accurate, and their ideas deserve attention.

The group has come up with some important reform ideas: differentiating between an inability to pay and a refusal to pay, pushing fee collection cases to civil court and mandating meaningful disclosure of court costs before approving plea agreements.
https://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/editorials/tulsa-world-editorial-exorbitant-court-costs-incentivizes-collections-not-justice/article_f4fc95d6-1f2a-5480-bef2-a11e67b70b7c.html