When you are charged civily you are not arrested and incarcerated. They will put a judgement against you and or youe taxes/paycheck.And IMO JPD uses that term loosely as to civil. Your neighbor can block your vehicle in and not let you out to go to work, Can block your garage so you cant get in, have 3 unregistered vehicles, and or threaten you if you try to get them moved JPD says civil matter.can change door locks on rental property get evicted for not paying rent for 5 months, lock all doors and windows all lights on,leave the hot water running,turn the heat up to 90 degrees when it is all included in rent he never paid, steal the landlords property and JPD says civil. But the landlord drills out locks and the police threaten to arrest him because the loser had till 5 pm that day to be out but left 2 days prior. and claimed the locks were his. Now that IMO is criminal behavior on tenants part.

mrsbarkeep, I can not believe that they put you in jail over a library book you paid for.. HAVE THEY GONE COMPLETELY NUTS!!! Sorry that happened, but the lil puppy who has 16 cases against him. Hmmmmmmm what happened to our "rehab. program" hmmmmmm I say lock his #$% up and throw away the #$# key. That's they way of it. Then Charge them by making them pick up garbage along roads, and make them shovel for the county and city.. Sidewalks of elderly, shutins.. Make em earn there keep.

WOW JAYT wasn't kidding, this guy does have 16 cases against him. No wonder he didn't have money to pay the fines, he had to pay 14 others plus these 2. Seems to me Jail might solve this guy's problem. I hate when they do stories like this. They pick something to make a point and make it sound minor and then you investigate and find out all this. Seems the world only takes things serious when someone is killed, should take them serious all the time to prevent the serious from happening. I work in a Liquor Store and one of my frequenters was arrested for his 6th not long ago. 3 days later he was back to get more booze, yep this progessive/alternative sentencing really works.

I was incarcerated for an overdue library book. I didn't check it out, didn't know it was overdue due to a postal problem and the library not mentioning it the 6 months I visitied before I got an notice to the address on my driver's license and paid for the book in full, then I was fined $440 for theft. I couldn't pay the fine being a single mother of 3 and a grandchild. Think of that when you look up how many sex offenders are living in your area! Oh, the book was still in the library the next time I visited.

Hey mytransam

I have a great idea, why dont you move to Germany then. That is the stupidest thing i have heard in a long time. Who cares about Germany you live in rock county. Why not put up a tent city and put them there. They can work it of on a chain gang, if that doesnt work i am sure they will commit a bigger crime in the future and then we can kill them. Hows that. Lets make it the death penalty for a library book. And we can remove sex organs for sex offenders, and we can chop the hands off of shop lifters, i heard they do that still.(somewherea0 and I have a good idea lets stone people for affairs that is also illegal in some states. Lets do it all COME ON, we can start the revolution VIVA LE REVALOUTION

Corrections is big business folks. They do not want crime to decrease, as one can tell by the fact that as major crimes decrease they come up with more and more rediculous laws to keep the system evolving. Jailing and imprisoning brings in big bucks not only from the huber and comissary but then outside family and friends send in money to inmates for huge phone fees. It's all about the MONEY not only community safety. Just go to any law enforcement agency and check out how top heavy they are in high paying management positions. There is approximately one management position for every four to five line personnel. Don't take my word for it do your own foot work and prove me wrong. The more layers of management the less the top have to do or answer to the public.

My fav. was Paris Hilton in jail ! Not really the same as any other human. She was let out of jail,why? Nervous breakdown? No one gave a crap when I was in constant tears! Oh yeah,Im not an heiress nor am I rich so I dont count! She even did worse than ME! I dont drink and drive!

villalamesville...how does me stating the fact that most people are middle or lower class ruining the global econimy? what are you an econimist? In Germany fines are based on a persons income, a person with a higher income level has to pay a bigger fine and a person with a lower income has to pay a lower fine. have you ever been to a county jail? You will never see a rich person in jail for not paying there fines. if you want to treat everybody as equals that would be my suggestion for treating everyone as "EQUALS"

When the county does their warrant sweeps, are any of the offenders picked up on county ordinance charges? County ordinance charges are not crimes they are civil forfeitures just like municipal ordinance violations. Many times when municipalities arrest offenders on state charges the circuit court reduces the charges to a county ordinance charge. Therefore the county gets the fine money. Take domestic violence offenses for example. Lets say JPD arrests Joe Blow for Domestic/Disorderly Conduct. By law because it is a Domestic charge it is a state offense/crime. The offender must be booked and held for bond. When it goes to court the charge likely will be reduced to a county ordinance/civil forfeiture removing the Domestic penalty enhancer. Rock County gets the fine money not Janesville. If Rock County doesn't get paid guess what, they issue a warrant and try to find the offender when they conduct their warrant sweeps. What is the cost for conducting warrant sweeps and housing inmates on minor county ordinance violations? Mr. Podzilni, you can't have it both ways. When state charges are reduced to county ordinance charges give the money back to the arresting municiplaity. Then they might be able to afford the increased jail fees. We all pay county taxes, don't forget that.

There really shouldn't be jailing for non payment of fines in city civil cases. It simply amounts to "debtors prison" as one is jailed for not paying money owed to the city. The Sheriff is correct, the jail should used for more public safety minded purposes.

HEY I got an idea! Lets let all the child mosesters out on probation instead of putting them in jail. We need them so badly, who else is going to serve ice cream to our children? OH WAIT! Thats what this county does already. My bad, I better think of a different idea.

There is something missing here. Most of the people that are locked up because of minor offences pay there own jail fees. Unemployment is what? about seven persent? If you go to jail and have a job you will get huber. That is how they get there money back out of the offenders. I would bet huber fees are also going up..It's just another way to tax the lower and middle classes..

By the way....money seems to be more important than accountability and enforcement. Go figure. Most of these loosers are involve in intermittant crimes anyway, between 'municipal' charges. They're the same people (mostly), just different trips to the jail!
*
If we shy away from incarceration because of costs, then we reward bad behavior. Municiplaities should figure out how to get the money back from the offender.!!!!

You certainly have lots of opinions, and many people have great intentions. Let me tell you two truths: One, it is nearly impossible to have an accurate opinion unless you have worked as a person within the criminal justice side of this. Two, what will be the alternative if we can't hold people for unpaid fines?
*
People will simply have nothing stopping them from committing these (smaller) but offensive acts. It's not just an unpaid fine.....it was EARNED by breaking the rules, and then the contempt of refusing to pay for it! (most people can pay but WON'T)
*
Keep in mind, these individuals don't care about 'credit' or 'history' or background information etc etc. You will not get the money or restitutions!!!! By the way, Worthless checks is exactly like stealing. Or else the individual would have gone to their damn court date to explain it!
*
I've heard all the alternatives and nothing seems to play out as viable in my opinion. Simply keep incarcerating them, and find a way to take from their assets afterwards. Put the burden on those who won't play by the rules! Simply find a way to get the cash to cover the expenses-through the offender.
*
And these poor 'unpaid fine'-types act like asses while they are in jail, and most of you have no idea. Don't be lemmings to this article.

A little off the beaten path of this article, but who isn't?: WI State Statutes: 943.24 Issue of Worthless Check. Its in there but many bigger departments, ie. JPD, feel that its a waste of time/resources to enforce. They tell you to go through Civil Court. A lot of the smaller agiencies cite for this because they have the time and hey.....its another ticket to give. IMO, businesses, get TELECHECK, and citizens, only accept the "good ole American cash" Problem solved.

bouncing checks not a crime? People can be ticketed for it, and if they don't pay the ticket they can be jailed, so how is it not a crime?

We have had several 500-2000 checks bounced on us and guess what the PD says, its not a crime. This city and county needs an overhaul in the worst way, they do not support thier local business, they jail minor offenders and clog the courts its all a giant scam in good old boy Janesville. We need a Mayor, not a counsil, we need results not stupid book fines, we need to move into the 21st century. Enough is enough

this whole thing is stupid, they should raise it to the 62 or 3 it costs then these idiots would forget the stupid tickets. Its a waste of time, a waste of the court system and I the "tax payer" am completely disgusted. We have had 3 incidents this year at our business and all are crimes and the Janesville PD has done nothing. I mean nothing, we get stupid answers like you have insurance, and take them to civil court, all these library fines and BS are clogging the system with ridiculous crap. Get after the real criminals and the real problems and quit with this drivil

JayT, thank you for the link. Its obvious Victor Roice has NO respect for personal property or for the law. He's 20 years old with 16 violations on his record! Has he crossed the line to career criminal? I think he's close.

Obviously. the minor charges for overdue library books and other silly things are ridiculous. Last year, a gal I work with was given a ticket for failure to return a book her "tween" had neglected to return. The officer actually showed up on her front doorstep with the ticket/summons to appear in court. Good grief!

But THIS guy is headed for the BIG house at this rate.

Yes RCSD allows payment plans as does the state of Wisconsin but the City of Janesville does not........I dont know about Beloit and Ive never gotten an ordinance ticket there....

they`ll be cutting police officers next,were losing good tax paying jobs

rock county does in a sense allow payment. As my son had a speeding ticket and expired reg. He sent in payments every two weeks, not to mention the automatic 60 days he got, and they never once returned a payment, not once. Maybe they don't put it in writing, but they will take what they can get. If you offer something they will not turn it away..

I guess what I am trying to say, is as long as the court gets there money, the fine. I don't think they are overly concerned if restitution is made. You also can't make people work, just so you can collect on your civil judgment. If they want to live with nothing than that is up to them. Your ability to collect does run out after so many years as well.

To not allow a child to see his parent at jail has nothing to do with the article. Some people are in jail for serious crimes and some for stupid mistakes and with the way the economy is some peple cant afford to pay all at once. Tallman Why punish a child and not allow them to see their parent because the parent made a mistake. maybe seeing what it is like in jail could be an eye opener for young kids and help them make better choices, IMO! Like I stated earlier allow payment plans and then the city gets their money and the tax payers dont have to foot the bill at 64 dollars a day Who do you think has to cover the costs as sitting in jail for unpaid fines IT is still not generating money for anyone and the person walks out after sitting for free without having to pay a dime. IMO would it not be more wise to allow payment plans on city fines and get some money flow coming into the system rather then the jails housing the people at tax payers expense and the cities will lose anyway as they have to cover the cost for housing them!!!! Now think about the reality of rational options!!!!!! And I know for sure janesville does not allow payment plans.This is a topic needed at city council meetings (much more needed then worrying about plastic grocery bags) IMO

Rock county intercepts for fines and back child support, not for civil judgments. So if we take the example given of damage to rotary Gardens, that was ordered in a criminal court, not civil. It was ordered on top of what ever else they got. I think its contempt of court for not paying, but intercepting of refund I don't know because it is separate than the fine.

The part about they should allow payments on fines, most all places do. You almost always get a automatic 60 days to pay. In most places as long as you are paying something, they don't put a warrant out for your arrest. The key thing is here is to many people just ignore there fines thinking nothing will happen. Just Pay your fines people even if its only 20.00 a week. Most small municipal courts will set up payment arrangements as well. As long as they get there money they are happy.

tallman- rock county already does intercept for fines back child suppport ect. but it does no good for them to wait until tax time to collect the money if someone gets hauled off to jail on their warrants first!!

Go to the Rock County website-under sheriffs dept and look at the Civil Process unit.
That is what they do. It's a whole division
dedicated to civil law. Has anyone ever used
the division to have civil papers served? I have. You pay fees - they do civil work.

I hope this is a good point about not locking someone up for stupid crap.I was in the same area as someone on their fouth dui that eventually crashed his car and hit someone.The person was ok but bruised a bit.Was I in the same class as that person? I never drink and drive and am non- violent.Im just argumentative.

ok, if a court orders restitution, like in the Brodhead paper under the court section, it says so and so , worthless checks , 100.00 find and restitution, that is different than a civil judgment. If someone is ordered to pay restitution for a criminal act, and they don't I would think that would be contempt of court, and to jail they should go. But that is for a criminal offense not civil.. It sounds to me like you are trying to collect on civil judgments, and you want the government to do it for you.

Correct - it is contempt for not paying the judgment. But it is an arrest.

It still goes on. It is a pain for a landlord to go through, plus as a landlord you have to pay for some arrest and jail expenses. It is an old law, but it's still on the books.

directory,

you have misinformation. The creditor can have a debtor arrested, but only for contempt if the debtor fails to return a financial disclosure to the court before the judgment is entered. There is no criminal penalty for failing to pay a judgment, the worst that can happen is your paycheck being garnished.

I think it appears that some believe that the only way a civil judgement occurs is by rent or trusting someone i.e loans etc. Many judgements are not of that concern. It could be from a auto accident, damages to property such as that done to Rotary Gardens handed down by the court in the form of restitution to be paid while on Probation. If that restitution is not paid during probation it then is converted to a civil judgement. Judges could hold the convicted in contempt but it never happens leaving the victim at bay. Many incidents by no choice of the victim is my point, rent owed is something caused by lack of action many times. If it is not a government concern then why have the courts to take the action to begin with including restitution??? It is a government action by virtue of it's origination!! I am not seeking pitty but rather another solution to a existing problem.

directory, wow that has to be one old law. We have had rental property for years and never have been told about that, not even our lawyer who has handled most of these for us. I doubt very much you could ever get a judge to order jail time. That has got to be one old law. As we have been told its not up to the courts to collect on civil cases, it the plaintiffs.

I was not able to get a lawyer until the end of the first month.I was given a public defender who wasnt available and never met with me.The lawyer I DID get,went on vacation right away so I had to get a new one.Finally got a good one and got out! That is what took so long.I still have nightmares of my "ordeal" as I call it.

The city of Janesville needs to allow payment plans like the State and County does..........If they would allow payment plans then the overcrowded jail would have room for the ones that really need to be there!!!IMO

Renters can be put in jail for not paying rent. The landlord must take the renter to court, get a judgment and if the renter does not pay the judgment it is up to the landlord to get a warrant. Yes it happens, not often, but it happens. Same with library fines, money owed to private individuals etc. This is called "Civil Law".

be happy where was your lawyer? It does seem odd you would sit so long, for what sounds like nothing more than disorderly conduct. Tallman??huh?? Have you not figured it out yet that the government does not care if you get your money as long as they get theirs? Besides if they ever did allow tax intercepts by the common man, that person could just as easily file for bankruptcy, and bankruptcy to file is free if you are below the poverty line, so you would still be out the money. Your judgment would not be protected from bankruptcy like taxes are for the government. I agree with the one poster you need to be more careful in what ever it is you are doing, that you have more than one judgment against someone. Even if it means you don't rent property or do business with someone better safe than sorry. I try to keep my line of thinking as I can not change or control what others do , but I can control what I do.

Tallman,I agree with the 2nd half of your comment,people should make due on debts even if they have to be collected through taxes and such.However I cant agree with the first half.My kids would have been devastated if they were not allowed to see me, no matter the horrible circumstances. Small children dont understand or care as long as they get to see their parents.

tallman, collecting of a debt someone owes you in the private sector is none of the government's business and they will never allow anyone but themselves to do that. Its not there problem. They are not YOUR collection agency. We have rental property and after getting burned a couple of times we changed our practices of renting and collecting rent. IF it became clear there was a problem we got them out immediately instead of waiting to see if they would change. Because seldom do they. It sounds like you need to change your practices and stop looking for the gov. to help you out. NOT there job. Some times people have to learn the hard way, we did.

Sorry as frustrating as it may be they would never allow creditors that are not of the government kind to intercept refunds. Because except of the government kind, your right to garnish is based on a person's level of income and if they fall under the poverty level or not. ALSO some people already have more than one company garnishing their wages, or are having child support taken out. THE most someone's income can be garnished is 20% anyway, which is if you are working min wage or not full time is not much. Maybe you should be more careful who you give credit to. My family member is a lawyer and has had to try to garnish before and it can be hard. That is why you need to be careful whom you give credit to.. Be responsible on your end.

I use to think it was ok to jail ANYONE who broke the law. Then it happened to me over something stupid as far as im concerned.It was a drunken argument between me and someone else who was also drunk.(We were at home,btw)No one got hit,hurt or anything,we were just loud.Police were called and I was arrested simply because I was a few points more drunk than the other person.Because 4 yrs prior to this I had a similar situation,I sat for 2 months. I know how people think about this stuff and I also know that an argument with anyone is bad,let alone the drunken thing and believe me,I will understand the negative comments,but,please tell me how being too loud cost me and my kids 2 months of suffering when there are most certainly worse people in the world? They could have given me probation or community service or something. On top of that,I still had the fines to pay.How was I to do that when I was locked up? Thank God for family!

First, I do not believe a child (under the age of 18) should be allowed into the court house unless it's juvenile court for their cases. Second, I do not believe a child should be allowed to enter the county jail for visiting. Both of these routine attendances while growing up sets them up to beleive that going to court and jail is an okay thing. Thus, eventually they grow up beleiving it is okay to do both repeatedly.

Lastly, why not place the fines etc for minor offenses as civil judgements and file tax intercept for any tax refunds they ever receive until paid as goverment agencies are allowed to do so. I also believe that victims who are awarded by circuit court judges and hold financial civil judgements should also be allowed to file intercepts on tax refunds. Many perpetrators/violators work just enough to be eligible for tax credits and refunds and yet are never forced to pay for their owed judgements. The victims are expected to constantly chase these violators and attempt to collect from wages when they do ever work. It's exhausting to find and then file papers to garnish wages. I am interested in how many of you feel about this as a possible solution to collecting fines and outstanding civil judgements??

So it costs $64/day to house them here, but only $52/day to house them in other counties? I guess either costs need to be looked at, or they should start shipping inmates to other counties instead. Why keep paying a higher cost when you can get it cheaper from other counties? I know, I know. "But if I am housed in Dane/Door/Milwaukee/etc. county, my baby's mama can't come visit me while I sit in jail." Well then, suck it up and don't do something to end up in jail! Maybe facing spending time in a far away jail will be an incentive to not end up in jail in the first place.

This really is not about if someone should be jailed or not. It is about the fact that anymore it costs more to jail them than the fine it self. It is taxpayers who ultimately pay for keeping them. It also gives the county more of a reason to want and plead for a new jail due to over crowding..

Intercept their tax return
Suspend their right to drive or hunt.
Community service

I am sure other solutions could be come up with if they sat down and thought about it.

People should not be jailed for library fines, that is stupid, and a waste of tax payer money.

Theft from a library is different.

Most library's have food drives and will erase fines at Christmas, and major holidays, so they can not need the fines that badly.

ChevyChugg: That is exactly what happened to a Beloit (possibly, Town of Beloit) woman earlier this year.

I fail to see how someone could be jailed for not paying a library fine. Defaulting on debts is not criminal, and cannot carry jail-time, as (thankfully) we do not have debtor's prison in this country.

We will see how you feel SarahB, when someone bounces a check for a significant amount of money to you or drives through your flower bed, fails to make restitution, fails to pay fines simply because there is no consequense to fear.

Yeah, I guess I am feeling a bit argumentmentative today.

Put them in jail until they pay the fine as well as the $52 per day.

Okay, RonBurgundy, just for you: It's a waste of taxpayer money to jail people for non-violent, LOWER-RISK crimes. And, yes, I do consider it a big waste of my money to jail someone for a library fine. To compare that with a fifth-offense OWI demonstrates how desperate you are to argue today.

Garyprimer: Make it part of the Workenders Program.

Behaving and acting like a human? Aren't the people in jail humans?

Ok, what is the point of jail? Who is to decide what is a "minor offense" is? I bet the library that got stiffed on their late fee that they need to operate, buy new material, pay the water/light bill, ect does not think that it is real minor. There needs to be consequences for illegal actions. A citation is the least punishment one could receive. If the citation is not paid, then a warrant is issued, then person is jailed. 5th offense OWI is a felony. If a person convicted of 5th offense OWI did not have an accident or hurt anyone while racking them up, then this is a non-violent act. Should they be let off because the jail is too crowded? If there are not any consequenses for actions don't ya think that things would get worse? I do!

How do you make people who won't do anything that they are told to do shovel snow?

Get back to the point of the story: It's a waste of taxpayer money to jail people for non-violent crimes. Let them shovel snow instead.

I looked up his name on WI court access and he has 16 cases in his name. Stop crying about it.
http://wcca.wicourts.gov/pager.do;jsessi...

I imagine that people will continue to pay or not pay their fines at about the same rate. This article is about the cost to municipalities and the options they face when someone does not. It really doesn't change the incentives for the offenders.

If you want to stay out of jail, PAY YOUR FINES!!!! If you don't have the money, you call the clerk of courts and get a payment plan. Or don't do stupid things to get these tickets. I don't care if it's Disorderly Conduct or not returning library books. Behaving and acting like a human will avoid a trip to jail.

The Gazette seems like it wants the public to feel sorry for this guy. Maybe if it was his first run in with the law, but he has a long list of criminal offenses. If Victor wants to stay out of jail, maybe he should do the right thing and follow the law! He has wasted too much of the courts' time and taxpayer money with all his offenses.

20 years.

How does the fee sit stagnant for $20 years?

Roice, The police don't look kindly on people who burn doughnuts. Well? Someone had to say it. It's too obvious!