Though enforcement procedures for non-payment of fines and local taxes are necessary, Rona Epstein of Coventry University's Division of Law argues that enforcement by imprisonment is not only inefficient, in that the sums owed are cancelled by committal, but operates without any of the safeguards which normally govern use of this remedy of last resort, so that we fail to protect vulnerable defaulters.
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References
1.
R. Epstein, Imprisonment for Debt: Report to the Nuffield Foundation, July 1996.
2.
The Imprisonment of Fine Defaulters, Penal Affairs Consortium, July 1995.
3.
The Times, 25 June 1996. See R. Epstein and I. Wise, 'Poll tax committals and the European Court', Solicitors Journal 588-589, 1995.
