{"id":1653,"date":"2015-10-21T14:01:32","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T14:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/?p=1653"},"modified":"2015-10-21T14:01:32","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T14:01:32","slug":"for-offenders-who-cant-pay-its-a-pint-of-blood-or-jail-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/2015\/10\/21\/for-offenders-who-cant-pay-its-a-pint-of-blood-or-jail-time\/","title":{"rendered":"For Offenders Who Can\u2019t Pay, It\u2019s a Pint of Blood or Jail Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p-block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/files\/2015\/10\/20alabama-articleLarge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1654 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/files\/2015\/10\/20alabama-articleLarge.jpg\" alt=\"20alabama-articleLarge\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/files\/2015\/10\/20alabama-articleLarge.jpg 600w, https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/files\/2015\/10\/20alabama-articleLarge-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p-block\">MARION, Ala. \u2014 Judge Marvin Wiggins\u2019s courtroom was packed on a September morning. The docket listed hundreds of offenders who owed fines or fees for a wide variety of crimes \u2014 hunting after dark, assault, drug possession and passing bad checks among them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-block a-ok\">\u201cGood morning, ladies and gentlemen,\u201d began Judge Wiggins, a circuit judge here in rural Alabama since 1999. \u201cFor your consideration, there\u2019s a blood drive outside,\u201d he continued, according to a recording of the hearing. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have any money, go out there and give blood and bring in a receipt indicating you gave blood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-block a-ok\">For those who had no money or did not want to give blood, the judge concluded: \u201cThe sheriff has enough handcuffs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-block a-ok\">Efforts by courts and local governments to generate revenue by imposing fines for minor offenses, particularly from poor and working-class people, have attracted widespread attention and condemnation in recent months. But legal and health experts said they could not think of another modern example of a court all but ordering offenders to give blood in lieu of payment, or face jail time. They all agreed that it was improper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-block a-ok\">To read more click <a href=\"http:\/\/mobile.nytimes.com\/2015\/10\/20\/us\/for-offenders-who-cant-pay-its-a-pint-of-blood-or-jail-time.html?_r=1\">here.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MARION, Ala. \u2014 Judge Marvin Wiggins\u2019s courtroom was packed on a September morning. The docket listed hundreds of offenders who owed fines or fees for a wide variety of crimes \u2014 hunting after dark, assault, drug possession and passing bad checks among them. \u201cGood morning, ladies and gentlemen,\u201d began Judge Wiggins, a circuit judge here [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/plap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}