[exelius]

Yeah, the whole problem here is that there is a pipeline from non-criminal traffic violations to jail. Traffic tickets are one of those things that poor people should be able to get dismissed out of hand if they show an inability to pay. But in many departments, the fines have changed from a punitive measure to a revenue generator. So they prey on people who don't have enough money to get out of the system by trapping them inside it.

IMO police departments should only be able to acquire revenue from the city/state budget. Any money collected as fines should go directly into a national victims compensation fund (used to pay for medical bills and property damage done by poor criminals to innocent people). That would fix a lot of this mess -- like anything else, it's all about the money.