Texas is a state that loves to lock people up. This is triply true if you are black and male. No case exemplifies this disparity more than the case of a man who was taken to jail for not returning a GED study guide on time.
The case of Jory Enck is getting national attention after the Copperas Cove Police Department put the young man in handcuffs for not returning the book that he borrowed three years ago. The 19-year old kept the book for far longer than expected, but some are considering the outcome to be beyond excessive.
According to KWTX-TV, the young man was booked for violating a local ordinance which says that not returning library books in 90 days can put you in jail. The library will call and email you, but if you don’t reply, you’re going to have an arrest record.
“The reason they passed it was that they were spending a tremendous amount of money replacing these materials that people just didn’t return,” Copperas Cove municipal court Judge Bill Price said.
“The other side of that is people that go to our library and can’t have these materials, they’re put out too,” he said, attempting to justify the law.
Sergeant Julie Lehmann of the Copperas Cove Police Department stated that those who get pulled over on traffic stops and have overdue library books are going to jail.
“And usually when we make contact, it’s based on something else, like a traffic stop,” Lehmann said. “The officer is going to run their driver’s license and it’s going to show that they have an active local warrant out of our city. So it’s not as if we’re actively out there going after these felony book thieves.”
Enck was released on $200 bond the following day.
Another woman, Katelyn Jageman was also being chased by the cops after she acrued $81.60 in library fees for not returning “Dora the Explorer: The Halloween Cat,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “Corduroy’s Halloween.”
Do you believe throwing someone in jail for not returning a library book is justifiable? Should this have been treated as a civil violation instead resulting in just fines to this young man? We would like to here your thoughts on this disturbing but true story below.
Source: BOS
