The story seems to confirm my criticism of the "never talk to police" mantra. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14345776) If you're going to take that to heart, you need a step 2: "Ok I got arrested, maybe for BS like annoying the cop by not talking, maybe not, but now I need a way to procure a good lawyer and let someone on the outside know, probably giving them power of attorney so they can make certain arrangements." (Edit: Though it's probably a good idea to have most of that step 2 planned out regardless of if you talk to cops or not.)

You don't get to keep your phone once arrested and booked. If the person processing your items is nice, they will look up a number for you in your phone and write it down on some scratch paper which you can take into holding.

That's ridiculous. What if the person isn't nice? What if you didn't have your phone with you in the first place? Or it got damaged or lost? How did this even work before mobile phones that stored contact lists, which really isn't that long ago?

What should any of that matter as to whether you get justice or not?

I swear, with this stuff, the plea bargaining, juries, "expensive lawyers", sometimes I get the idea that the US justice system is designed to provide plot devices for TV series of police/justice procedurals, and everything else is an afterthought. How often do people say, after dealing with police/justice, "I felt like I was in a bad movie"?

If the person isn't nice you are SOL. I got arrested once during a commute for an unpaid parking ticket from college, cue cop placing cuffs on me tightly, slamming me against the squad car, searching the vehicle, then hauling me off to county for booking. They refused to let me look up numbers on my phone and I was left to call my parents 3 hours away to come pay the cash only bond.

It was a pretty eye opening experience. Especially on the arresting officer's part because they get no clue as to why they are arresting you beyond "FAILURE TO APPEAR" that shows on their screen, so they assume the worst.

Failure to Appear is failure to comply with a court summons, not failure to pay a parking ticket. There is definitely more to this story.

Get a ticket, you get a choice between paying the fine and appearing in court to contest it. Guess what happens when you do neither.

In the US? You get a court summons delivered by mail. Then you should probably go to court.

Problem there is now they're in your phone.

I'm also confused by how things went down. Can't you ask your lawyer to contact someone for you? And why did you lose your things - can't your son collect the items that were in your apartment and arrange for storage? Did you not have any savings put aside? I'm willing to believe the story told, but I'm curious about these points.

Maybe there were no relatives living in the same city. Maybe living relatives are all estranged. Maybe they have their own catastrophic troubles which make it infeasible to help.

If not for this individual, then for others. Statistically, going to jail will cause severe dislocation and disruption at least some of the time. Fragile circumstance are fragile.