The government of Saskatchewan, Canada will spend nearly $12,000 (US $10,000) to jail a woman over $2000 (US $1700) in parking tickets. Shiloh Brass, 31, has been sentenced to 96 days in prison because she has not been able to pay off parking tickets she collected as a student six years ago. Brass, a mother of four children, was arrested on November 6 because she had not fully paid the city of Regina.

Brass was sentenced without legal counsel as the matter was deemed "non-criminal," and she could not afford an attorney. Now she has lost her job and her husband had to leave his employment to take care of the children. Brass had paid $1000 CAD last year -- one-third of her debt -- and was willing to work off the remainder.

"They haven't given me a chance," Brass told the Regina Leader-Post. "They should because sitting in jail for 60 to 90 days for people when they've got jobs and everything -- they could even be getting their money back from me right now if I was working."

It costs the Saskatchewan government approximately $120.50 CAD a day to hold each prisoner.

"If you don't pay a fine, there are consequences and the current consequence for that, as the law reads today, is jail time," [Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco] said. "Now as much as I believe that jail time isn't the answer for it, that doesn't mean that it's not going to happen, so pay your parking tickets."