News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments. Parent comment

Re:More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments by iambateman on Wednesday April 06, 2016 @10:30PM (#11444250)
I hear what you're saying, but bankruptcy is most certainly a bailout relative to debtors prison.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments by sk5t on Thursday April 07, 2016 @12:52AM (#11444820)
That's an interesting perspective, but the U.S.A. does not have debtors' prison. Only bad loans that are not repaid.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments by nkurz on Thursday April 07, 2016 @01:19AM (#11444899)
the U.S.A. does not have debtors' prison

While true in theory, this may not be true in practice. There are several loopholes, one main one being that failure to pay fees and penalties assessed by the justice system itself can be a criminal offense. In some states a significant percentage (as high as 20%) of current prisoners are being held for failing to pay these LFO's (Legal Financial Obligations).

Here are a couple ACLU reports about the practice:

  In for a Penny: 
  The Rise of America’s New Debtors’ Prisons
https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/InForAPenny_web.pdf

  Modern Day Debtors Prisons: 
  The Ways Court-Imposed Debts Punish
  People for Being Poor
https://aclu-wa.org/sites/default/files/attachments/Modern%2...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments by pc86 on Thursday April 07, 2016 @11:03AM (#11447796)
> failure to pay fees and penalties assessed by the justice system itself can be a criminal offense

Which doesn't have much of anything to do with the real estate market, right?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments by nkurz on Thursday April 07, 2016 @03:06PM (#11449739)
Correct. I hoped from context that it was clear that I was responding only to the line that I quoted (which said that the US "does not have debtors' prison") and not to the main thrust of the argument.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments by iambateman on Thursday April 07, 2016 @08:35AM (#11446715)
Yeah. Historically society has sent people to prison for failing to pay. Today we allow for bankruptcy, which is relatively better.
[ Parent | on HN ]