Melbourne pensioner reveals why he paid jailed WA mum’s fines

In order to pay the fines, initially Mr Clark had to investigate in which prison she was in and tried calling, but was denied because he did not know her name.

“I said [to the attendant] there’s an article in The Guardian today if you pull it up on your computer you’ll see it,” Mr Clark explained.

“How many Noongar women with five children of her own, and six children that she looks after, who’ve been arrested in the last two days do you get?

“And she said, ‘oh we get seven or eight a day’. I said, ‘are they all being locked up because of unpaid fines?’ And she said, ‘yes, and they’re mostly women’,” he recalls in disbelief.

“At that point, I just shook my head.”

But after much determination, he finally got through to someone who could help him, and paid the remainder of the woman’s fines, which after her two days in prison at a rate of $250 per day, meant there was $3376 remaining.

Now he is calling for change to the Western Australian system.

“It’s a national disgrace,” Mr Clark said.

http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2017/10/02/exclusive-melbourne-pensioner-reveals-why-he-paid-jailed-wa-mums-fines?

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