Monday, June 2, 2014

The Traffic Ticket-to-Prison Pipeline


From Dr. Jean Kennedy, a U.S. citizen and Jamaican immigrant, who was arrested in Smyrna, GA for not being able to pay her traffic ticket immediately. See her Notice of Claims attached at the link below her description:

My attorney, Erik Meder, Esq., did a profound job in outlining the details of my arrest on Feb 2014. You have my permission to use any parts of my information in the attachment (including newspapers that might wish to carrying my story). Feel free to contact my attorney at 678-556-0008; for any comments, please contact me at 559-270-1023.

I was fortunate to have an attorney, but I left behind four other black women crying in the holding cell we shared. They were arrested the same day that I was on traffic violations. They could not immediately pay their traffic tickets, like I couldn't, so we were all immediately arrested. Did those sistahs manage to make bail so they could go home to their children that day? I don't know. One thing I do know is that all four of our lives were seriously disrupted because paying fines immediately was not possible for any of us.

We are all victims -- the taxpayers who finance mass incarceration, those who get arrested, and those who have to pay a traffic ticket immediately to avoid arrest. Arresting people for their inability to pay traffic tickets on the spot is an attack on the indigent/poor. See my Notice of Claims at this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7OOCl9xjk33eWpuc3RFNElNWGVWREF0NVBwRFBnNWpjUkRR/edit?usp=sharing

Dr. Jean Kennedy is an organizational psychologist and a radio host on National Network in Action at Blogtalkradio. She shared disturbing details about her first arrest out of concern for other Georgia drivers. 
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