“sending poor, racialized people inescapable bills for their kids’ jail time is profoundly unjust and cruel, the first step on the path that the Chinese pursued, whose terminus was the practice of sending families bills for the bullets used to execute their loved ones.”
It’s also the first step towards indentured servitude, or slavery by another name.
There are societies on this planet where the unscrupulous use similar tricks to trap poor people in jobs they can’t quit. So far the US is just using it to keep poor people poor, but how long do you think that will last?
