A Shift in How Seattle Punished Public Intoxication
A new administrative system for municipal court fines turned a $1 penalty into a three-day jail sentence.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Judge Glasgow, of the municipal court, has adopted a new system in fining persons who are brought before him for misdemeanors, and now it only costs a man $1 and a ride in the patrol wagon together with a night's lodging in the city jail, if the charge is simple drunkenness. In the past, the regular fine has been $5, with an allowance of $2.50 for each day spent in jail. Thus a man who could not pay the necessary $5 was boarded at the city's expense two days. By the new system, a man is fined $1 in default of which he has to stay in jail three days. It is thought, however, that enough more will pay the $1 to make it advantageous in a financial way.
“By the new system, a man is fined $1 in default of which he has to stay in jail three days.”
This reflects the long-standing, often futile cycle of municipal courts using incarceration to manage homelessness and addiction—a 'financial advantage' that rarely accounts for the costs of keeping people behind bars.
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