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Debtor prisons are against the law, but tens of thousands of Floridians who can’t afford to pay a traffic ticket often end up jailed on felony charges. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, lawmakers want big changes in the ways fines are handled.

It begins with a traffic stop. Those who can’t pay often ignore the fine which leads to their license being suspended. People drive anyway and end up in jail.  Public Defender Nancy Daniels says sees cases like these almost every day.

“Every day at first appear you see the people who have been arrested for this. Now, they are entitled to a bond, but because they are so poor, they can’t pay the bond even. So they sit in jail and then we rack up jail costs for this too,”

We met Will Norman making a payment at the Clerks office.

“I’m here to pay them now. That’s pretty much all it is.”

Q:”How much extra did it cost you?”

A:”Ah, about 15 hundred.”

More than 8 hundred thousand Floridians had their license suspended last year for not paying a fine. Another six hundred thousand lost their diving privilege for other offenses, like under age smoking or drinking, theft, or even defacing a building. Sen. Jeff Brandes wants to stop suspending so many licenses,

“We suspend one point four million driver’s licenses in the state of Florida in any given year, and eighty percent of those are for the inability to pay fines or fees.”

Bob Inzer, Leon County Clerk of Courts, says without the hammer of a suspension, there’s not incentive to pay a fine.

“If you take that tool away, to some extent, what does a court order mean anymore? Because really becomes voluntary whether you pay or not.”

The legislation also requires the courts  to work on payment plans that don’t exceed 2 percent of a persons months income.

The Clerks estimate that is fifteen percent more people stop paying fines, it would cost the courts 24 million dollars a year. Money they say needs to be made up by lawmakers if the legislation becomes law.