Arrested and Paying a Fine Even When a Person is Not Convicted or Even Tried

Just Another Day in the So-Called Free and Democratic America

The Supreme Court will consider whether to take up a case from Minnesota surrounding
the collection of “booking fees.” CreditAl Drago/The New York Times

It turns out the innocent until proven guilty concept in American justice is like almost every other ideal in America, it really doesn’t exist.

Kentucky bills people held in its jails for the costs of incarcerating them, even if all charges are later dismissed. In Colorado, five towns raise more than 30 percent of their revenue from traffic tickets and fines. In Ferguson, Mo., “city officials have consistently set maximizing revenue as the priority for Ferguson’s law enforcement activity,” a Justice Department report found last year.

That’s right, in America you can be arrested and later let go with no conviction yet still have to pay money.  Whether or not this is legal will be argued before the Supreme Court in January.  The practice is so deplorable that Ramsey county in Minnesota didn’t even file a brief in support of their policy to charge anyone arrested a $25.00 fee even if they are later released with no charges.

Ramsey County did not bother to submit a response in the Supreme Court. “We have not filed a brief in opposition to the petition, nor do we plan to,” Mr. Hiveley said in a Dec. 8 email. The county, he said, would take its chances before the justices without presenting its side of the story.

Surprisingly conservatives are on the side of justice this time, arguing against the policy.  Anyone want to bet that at least a few conservatives on the Court won’t be on the side of justice?  Anyone?