Jailing debtors ‘Dickensian,’ say chaplains

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 1

Jailing debtors ‘Dickensian,’ say chaplains

By

ASHLEY CAMPBELL

The practice of jailing people who cannot pay their debts is scandalous and Dickensian, say Christchurch’s prison chaplains. During the last 222y 2 years, 60 people have been sent to Addington Prison alone for non-pay-ment of debts. The chaplains have written to the Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer, asking that the law be changed. “The latest case to come to our attention concerns a 21-year-old single parent mother of two preschool children from Southland who was recently sentenced to 60 days imprisonment for non-payment of a $555 bill to her lawyer, and a concurrent 21 days for non-payment of her rent,” the chaplains said. The

total debt amounted to $1316. The woman had already paid $3OO to her lawyer. She was arrested at her home, and escorted to Christchurch by a court baliff. After 14 days she was released from prison when a relative took out abank loan to pay the debt. In the meantime, the woman was charged for her air fare to Christchurch, and her escort’s return air fare, increasing the original $1316 debt to $2076, the chaplains said. “In a society where the public are pressured and enticed by all sorts of ridiculous incentives to buy consumer goods at every turn, it is simply not acceptable that the seller should ultimately have the prison system at his or her disposal to effect payment,” the chaplains said.

The co-ordinator of the chaplains' team, the Rev. Jim Consedine, said the ultimate punishment should be some form of community service, not imprisonment. “People who get into these situations need budgeting advice rather than more punishment,” he said. Before punishment became necessary there should be some form of mediation for those who disputed the debts, Father Consedine said. The chaplains had a fund to help people pay their debts so that they could get out of prison. Sometimes the debtors paid them back, sometimes they did not. This fund had been used times,” said Father Consedine. Often the amount involved was only a few hundred dollars.