From: jesus475073@webtv.net   
      
   Debtors' Prison, 2011 Edition   
      
   By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG   
   March 17, 2011   
      
   Some lawmakers, judges and regulators are trying to rein in the U.S.   
   debt-collection industry's use of arrest warrants to recoup money owed   
   by borrowers who are behind on credit-card payments, auto loans and   
   other bills.   
      
   More than a third of all U.S. states allow borrowers who can't or won't   
   pay to be jailed. Judges have signed off on more than 5,000 such   
   warrants since the start of 2010 in nine counties with a total   
   population of 13.6 million people, according to a tally by The Wall   
   Street Journal of filings in those counties.   
      
   Nationwide figures aren't known because many courts don't keep track of   
   warrants by alleged offense. In interviews, 20 judges across the nation   
   said the number of borrowers threatened with arrest in their courtrooms   
   has surged since the financial crisis began.   
      
   "I wish I could do it more," said Piatt County Circuit Judge Chris   
   Freese, who has heard hundreds of debt-collection cases. "It's often the   
   only remedy to get people into court and paying their debts."   
      
   In one of those cases, Emmie Nichols, 26 years old, was arrested in June   
   at her mother's house after lawyers for Capital One Financial Corp. won   
   an arrest warrant against her for skipping a court hearing about   
   $1,159.87 she owed on a credit card from the company. The $500 bond that   
   freed Ms. Nichols from the county jail was turned over to Capital One as   
   a partial payment of the debt, court filings show. A Capital One   
   spokeswoman declined to comment on Ms. Nichols.   
      
   Some judges are worried that the jump in debt-related arrest warrants is   
   creating a modern-day version of debtors' prison.   
      
   The practice ended in 1833 after decades of controversy, since borrowers   
   owing as little as 60 cents could be held indefinitely in squalid jails   
   until they paid off their debt.   
      
   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704396504576204553811636610.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)