Thursday, April 9, 2015

"Why are you refusing to pay your court ordered fines and restitution obligations?" --- Mr. Shepherd (SCU Case Manager, USP Terre Haute)

I'm paraphrasing this question from a conversation I had with Mr. Shepherd during which he repeatedly accused me of «playing the system» in order to avoid having to make prison imposed FRP («Financial Responsibility Program») payments. I tried several times to answer his question (and accusations) as we spoke, but he did not seem willing to hear anything I was saying (mostly, I supposed, because it wasn't what he wanted to hear). So, here is the answer for posterity's sake, and maybe for Mr. Shepherd too, if he ever decides to listen.

The answer is quite simple really. I'm not refusing to pay my court ordered fines and restitution at all. I'm only trying to avoid paying them with someone else's money. Let me explain...

If someone gives you a gift, you wouldn't sell it and use the money to pay a parking ticket would you? Even if the gift were cash (in a birthday card for example) you are still ethically obligated to use that money for something you'll enjoy, not to pay a library fine.

Of course, if you had a parking ticket or library fine that needed to be paid, and the gift was the only means you had for doing so, then --- with apologies, of course --- you'd have no choice but to hurt your friend's feelings and use the gift to take care of your obligation. It would be better though, if you sacrificed something other than your friend's feeling if you could, by using your grocery money, or gas money, if possible. Or, better yet, if you could put off paying the ticket/fine until another day, that would make the most sense; wouldn't it?

Well, that's all I'm trying to do. The FRP policy states that I am «exempt» if the amount of money I receive in a six month period is below a certain amount. So, I ask my friends not to send gifts in excess of that amount (which is what Mr. Shepherd calls «playing the system») so I won't have to use their money to pay my fines. It is a sacrifice on my part because my friends (and family) are more than willing to send enough money to cover the FRP payments and let me have more money for myself. But, I refuse to use their gifts to pay my obligations; and that's ALL I'm refusing. I'm not refusing to pay my fines at all. I'm just putting them off until I can pay them with my own money; which may well be forever. But, considering that I owe nearly a quarter-million dollars, I don't think the $25/month that Mr. Shepherd wants me to pay is going to make a bit of difference anyway. (And let's just ignore the minor fact that none of the $25 payments I was forced to pay in the last couple of years has ever been deducted from what I owe! The money simply disappears into the B.O.P. coffers, never to be seen or heard from again. And if I ask Mr. Shepherd where the money goes or what it is used for --- which I have, several times --- he claims not to know, and frequently insists it doesn't matter...only the «obligation» matters.)

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