35 Days in Jail for Bouncing a $29 Check? No Justice for the 99%

‘Nikki Petree was released last Thursday after spending 35 days in county jail for bouncing a $28.93 check five years ago. Judge Milas Hale, who is accused of running a modern-day debtors’ prison in Sherwood, Ark., sentenced the mother to jail; the Huffington Post reports Petree has been arrested seven times in connection with that charge and paid at least $640 to the city for the charge. She told the Post she still owes the city $1,300.
“Every time [I’d] go to jail, they’d let me out immediately for $100,” Petree said in an interview. “They’d turn around and add $600 or $700 more to my bond. I couldn’t afford to pay. They cornered me, and there was no way out from underneath it. I felt overwhelmed and hopeless.”‘
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