Can a speeding ticket destroy your life? It can, if it's not just the fine but the fees tacked on, and you can't immediately pay (and certainly can't afford to challenge it in court), and then get faced with added fees and fines which you probably can't pay, and then the added costs of a collection agency. In short order, that $50 can be costing thousands of dollars, which can then get translated into jail time for non-payment, losing you your job and income.
All for something as simple as a speeding ticket. Something a whole hell of a lot of people get, at least occasionally. And, yeah, some speeding tickets are bogus, but a lot of them (let's be honest here) aren't.
The headline is misleading, in that poverty is not being criminalized, but the death spiral of added fees and costs to anything associated with the justice system — an indirect taxation on those who get caught up on it — can be an irritant for those who can pay, but devastating for those who can't.
And all for a speeding ticket.
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The criminalization of poverty
A new NPR report illustrates the harm done when governments enforce petty crimes
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Being poor is expensive.
Beyond a doubt, Harold.
"Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor."
— James Baldwin, “Fifth Avenue, Uptown: a Letter from Harlem,” Esquire (Jul 1960)