Someone assaulted my baseball bat with their head in lieu of providing a voluntary donation to my wallet. Lawyer screwed me and I’m sentenced to 5 years in prison.
What happens to the bills I have to pay? My apartment, electricity, credit cards, etc. Obviously, I won’t make enough behind bars to pay the Visa bill. Will I have time to alert my landlord and electric company I have to cancel? Do I tell Visa I’m being sent to prison and can’t pay my monthly bills? Do they cancel or suspend my debt until I get out?
If I had a family, what would happen to them? They lost me, the primary breadwinner, for a number of years. She probably won’t make enough for the apartment and car payments. Even though I did the crime, is she SOL and has to make her own arrangements immediately?
First of all, sometimes the bond is continued so you won’t be marched right off to jail. This gives you time to arrange all of this stuff before you have to report to prison, but it’s discretionary and the judge may well decide that the defendant is to report to prison immediately upon conviction.
One option is for the prisoner to grant someone, such as a spouse or family member, power of attorney which will give that person the right to transact business on the prisoner’s behalf, including breaking the lease, shutting off utilities, closing or transferring bank accounts and settling debts, disposing of personal effects, and so forth. In some ways, it’s like settling an estate when someone dies, except that the prisoner may resume some of these things when he’s released. Some attorney’s offices have staff that do that if there is no spouse or family member to do that. Another option is for the prisoner to just walk away from his obligations. What are they going to do, throw him in prison?
To answer the second question, the spouse is SOL with respect to income unless there is income, such as a pension or some other benefit that doesn’t stop if there is a conviction. A fair number of prisoners’ families wind up on welfare, at least until the other parent finds employment. I don’t think that’ll happen to Mrs. Blagojevich, however. Her notoriety will likely be a sufficient enough asset to cover the bills until Rod gets out of prison. Besides, the family will save a fortune just on hair styling products alone.
I understand that this thread ask a serious question that would be pretty relevant if you were going away for a while. But honestly, who really cares if they have time to get their affairs in order or not. Really not our problem. The scenario that you described, you introduced a baseball bat to someones head while robbing them. If you killed them you surely weren’t worried about giving your victim any time to get their affairs in order and to take care of their family. So why should we give a flip about your? Let your life outside of prison crumble and fall apart. Not our problem. I will possibly feel a bit bad for your wife and kids, providing your wife wasn’t aware of and supporting your endevour. But society really shouldn’t be concerned in the least.
But, it is an interesting question. I would assume that if you don’t have a ton of money (and you probably don’t if you were robbing someone at bat point) that your creditors are SOL on anything that you owe them. Of course a bad credit rating is probably the least of your worries.
What obligation do felons serving long sentences have to file tax returns? Someone who will never get out obviously has no incentive to bother. But suppose that in 20 years you will be getting out, and you don’t want to get another felony conviction for not filing. What do you do? Either with or without income.
For most people, it’s an interesting question, but I’ve had to deal with this when my (now ex-) husband was convicted of a felony and sentenced to 23 years in prison. We went the POA route because I had to be able to transfer any and all bank accounts to my name, as well as utility accounts and a few other things. We didn’t have a ton of money either, but to simply walk away from all that would have fucked me over to a degree that I don’t even want to think about. The two of us sat down with a paralegal to do the POA, and to plan what, exactly, had to be done and in what order in the event that he were to be convicted, which, obviously, he was. When I initiated divorce proceedings the following year, part of the agreement was that I would terminate my POA and he would name his mother in my place, because if I were to remarry (which, obviously, I did), my being my ex’s POA might cause other problems that could result in another serious fuckover.
Yeah, it’s cold as hell, but it’s just business. It’s no different from settling an estate, only the decedent is still alive.
Yeah, pretty much. Some prisoners do make a small income, but it’s never enough to reach the level of having to file a tax return.
That said, however, it is possible for the prisoner to receive an income from a pension or whatever that would require a tax return. The prisoner has the right to receive mail, and the prisoner can file himself, or he can have the person he’s designated to be his power of attorney do it for him.
The analyst on NPR basically said that it’s not uncommon for white collar criminals to be given a few weeks or months to get their affairs in order before reporting to prison.
It makes sense to allow them to get their affairs in order as much as possible. Doing so can reduce economic costs and life disruption for other people besides the felon. Landlords have less work to do if they don’t have to empty out their belongings, creditors may actually get some reimbursement, etc.
And for the guys going in for just a couple of years, it makes sense that they can get their belongings out of storage after they’re discharged; having their property back may reduce the risk of recidivism after they’re released as they’ll have a few more things they can build on.
I really don’t get the attitude of “who cares what happens to them, they’re criminals.” Yes they are. But they’re also parents, children, spouses, siblings, friends, employees. When being imprisoned, they should be plucked out of their webs of relationships in such a way as to minimize the impact on the innocent who are entangled with them, and with an eye to eventually getting put back into that web with the best chances for future success.
Which, even without the planning to commit any crimes, most people probably ought do, anyway. There are many things that could leave you needing someone else to do that stuff for you.
It’s really not necessary to have such a POA under normal circumstances. Having something that can be triggered under certain specific circumstances makes more sense.
That said, Airman isn’t allowed to deploy without a valid POA in place. I’ve never had to use it, but it’s helpful if I do.
The bottom line is that shit happens in life. Forget about going to prison. You could be crossing the street and get hit by a bus. Your family might have to deal with your sudden absence at any moment. They’d have to take over paying the bills and transferring accounts over to their names and all that stuff. It’s obviously a huge disruption in their lives on top of the personal loss but it happens and people get through it.
Are you asking for the state to postpone your imprisonment for a period of time to…to… to what? There’s nothing you can’t do in prison that needs to be done outside. Wife needs to move/get a job/apply for welfare? She doesn’t need you for that. Can’t pay your credit card bill? Write them a letter. Or just default. They’ll find you sooner or later and most likely write it off to a bad debt. Need a Power of Attorney? Lots of free legal assistance in prison.
Nah, that “get your affairs in order” line is BS that buys you a little more freedon, that’s all.
If we’re going to worry about those other people, it would often be better to never let these people be “put back into that web,” but we still do it. Thing is, those other people just aren’t our primary concern.
And, really, without any significant programs to actually rehabilitate prisoners, I find the excuse for giving back their stuff to be less than satisfying. I guess it’s better than nothing, but if you are really concerned, have prison be more like a boot camp, with mandatory training and classes.
Is there some “greater good” logic here? Some crimes are minor enough or have little risk of being repeated so society is served by having these people make an orderly exit from society. Other cases, society might be better served by immediate incarceration.
I think that’s the idea. OP is likely to be remanded; if someone assaulted his baseball bat with their head once there’s nothing to say it won’t happen again while he’s out waiting to report to prison because if needed a voluntary donation then he probably does even more so now. OTOH Blagovich isn’t likely to sell a Senate seat in the next month and a half.