here's something that i don't believe has been highlighted yet, except slightly by brisket.
the system is set up for recidivism.
you see it all the time in the dwi world, and back when the mugshot thread was a thing - the repeat offenders were often picked up for other offenses that branched off their conviction.
but let's make a hypothetical. take a young (early twenties) service industry person. he works nights at a restaurant while trying to finish up his teacher's certificate. let's say he had a few beers after work with the kitchen staff before driving home. is he at fault for this act? yes. he is pulled over and subsequently arrested. that is one bad night. let's say he wasn't even really doing anything overly wrong on the roadway - but he had a brake light out. still, driving drunk is his fault, so he's got to take the arrest, but he does the smart thing and refuses a breathalyzer and the sobriety tests.
problem is, service being a cash heavy business, he carries most of his money in his wallet. he made $350 last night that's sitting in a baggie at the jail. his bank account is pretty short, because he's just made rent and power.
he's printed, mugshot, and spends the night in jail. he's arraigned the next morning. judge is in a bad mood, so even though he's on a first time offense, he is given an instruction for an interlock system on his car. he's given a $3000 bond, so his bail money would be $300. now, he's got enough of this in his wallet, but he has no access to this. so he cannot make bail, and he has friends trying to get hings put together for him.
but he has to spend another night in jail, is AWOL at work, and subsequently fired when his boss cannot get ahold of him.
finally the bail money is put together, and he gets out.
let's keep in mind at this point he is not even convicted of a crime.
his car has been towed by a tow company who charges $180 per night at their lot (cash only, and exact change ONLY!), so he's already out $360, which is more than he has got in his wallet, and besides, he has to pay his friends back for the bail loan.
somehow he scrapes up enough money to get his car back. now he needs to hire a lawyer to make a filing to get a provisional license to drive so he can find a new job so he can pay for all this shit. his lawyer is cool and agrees to be flexible on the payment plan. he pays what he can on a credit card, lawyer wanted $500 down. his lawyer advises him to take a couple of classes about drinking or some shit, and those cost about $50 each, and are really only offered in the evening, when he would normally be working. however, his lawyer makes clear these classes are checkboxes for a judge to be more understanding. no effort means no mercy.
let's keep in mind at this point he is not even convicted of a crime.
so he somehow finds his way into another job after a week. he's filling up his car with gas finally, walks into the gas station and BAM, there's his mugshot on a paper on the counter. clerk looks from paper to him and back to the paper.
let's keep in mind at this point he is not even convicted of a crime.
in order to drive that car, he has to have an interlock device installed. the device costs, say $100. then there's a monthly fee to be monitored by the device, let's say $75 per month. if he doesn't pay this, or is caught with the device somehow disconnected, his provisional license is suspended. he could also face a second arrest.
not even yet convicted.
let's say he manages to get all this done, and he pleads guilty and is convicted of a misdeanor dwi. now he has a record that makes him toxic to many employers, including schools, so he has to stick at being a waiter.
now shit still hangs over his head. he's on probation, he's got to pay court costs, and he can have his license back, but it comes with a three year surchage of $1000 each year. but don't worry, he can pay in installments of $38 per month. if he misses a payment, his license is suspended. he would be subject to arrest if pulled over with that suspended license.
the trick is, that $38 per month comes with a "convenience fee" of $5, so that's really $33 per month. but it's alright, he can pay it off in his own time. but these surcharges stack. so after only paying $396 of his first year surcharge after 12 months, the next year surcharge takes effect. bang, another $1000 stacked on top. he's successfully fulfilled the provisions of his probation, so, effectively he's "served his time, but that second surcharge is another minimum payment of $38, which means each month he know owes $76 or he risks losing his license. he manages to make this work, so he's paid nearly $800 of the first year, and $396 on the second year surcharge, but here comes year #3! another $1000 to stack on top. so now he's in for a minimum of $113 per month to retain his license, despite being 3 year removed from the crime he committed.
at every step, if he doesn't fulfill numerous obligations, he's subject to another arrest and more fines and more draconian punishments.
this is the same for numerous crimes, including possession of drugs, getting in a stupid fight, or whatever.
so we've taken a promising life of a guy who wants to be a middle school teacher and completely derailed it for at least half a decade. because this guy had one idiotic night wher ehe had one too many beers and a broken taillight.
what he did was wrong, but years later, he's still dealing with it. and the system is designed to be blocky with multiple points of failure to further embroil you in the justice system.
it's a meat grinder, intentionally so. you can't just expect people who don't have the money to pay fines to do, say, community service, because they need those hours to work. you or i get arrested for something or other, we can afford bail. we can afford a good lawyer. we can pay that surcharge out of pocket. but the waiter, the teacher, the person working through school at dominoes pizza? nope. they are turbo fucked, and for YEARS.
i'm not advocating for pardons, or ultimate leniency, or anything of the sort. but the system is very invested in putting offenders back inside and chewing them up, and it really punishes those who do not have a lot of money.
tl;dr - the system sucks and actively pursues ways to chew up no-violent offenders.