Every judge in America received from the U.S. Department of Justice last month with a simple message:
Stop putting poor people in jail simply because they are poor.
鈥淚mposing and enforcing fines and fees on individuals who cannot afford to pay them has been shown to cause profound harm,鈥 wrote Kristen Clarke and two other assistant attorneys general.
Clarke heads the department鈥檚 Civil Rights Division.
鈥淚ndividuals confront escalating debt; face repeated, unnecessary incarceration for nonpayment of fines and fees; experience extended periods of probation and parole; are subjected to changes in immigration status; and lose their employment, driver鈥檚 license, voting rights, or home,鈥 the letter added.
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It鈥檚 the sort of message that shouldn鈥檛 be necessary. After all, debtors鈥 prisons were banned in the U.S. in 1883. But through the rapid rise of fines, fees and other costs 鈥 such as the pernicious 鈥減ay-to-stay鈥 bills charged by many counties 鈥 courts have created de facto debtors鈥 prisons. They have put millions of poor Americans in jail because those Americans lack the income to pay the costs foisted on them.
So it was for Don Noland a decade ago. Then 17 and living in Maplewood, he almost missed his graduation from 50度灰视频 Career Academy because there were multiple warrants for his arrest over unpaid fines related to minor misdemeanors.
鈥淚 was just a student going to school, trying to graduate. I didn鈥檛 have any funds to pay the ticket,鈥 Noland, now 28 and working for a distribution company, told me.
He faced constant fear of arrest and jail time over the debt. 鈥淚 felt like I was less of a person.鈥
Noland is one of thousands of current or former Maplewood residents who stand to recoup some of the money they lost to the city鈥檚 unconstitutional practices. Some will receive up to $100 a day for the time they spent in jail as Maplewood sought to collect court costs.
Last month, just before the DOJ letter went out, the city filed by ArchCity Defenders; Tycko & Zavareei LLP; and Keane Law LLC. After using traffic tickets and other minor crimes as fundraising tools for more than a decade, Maplewood leaders agreed to pay out in a class action settlement. It was the latest city to do so since ArchCity Defenders started filing debtors鈥 prison lawsuits following the uprising in Ferguson in 2014.
After Ferguson became a hashtag, many of us learned for the first time of the in many 50度灰视频 County municipalities. As the DOJ letter notes, it鈥檚 not just a Missouri problem. And it鈥檚 poor people, particularly poor people of color, who suffer the most when cities use their courts to collect back-door taxes and jail those who can鈥檛 afford to pay.
鈥淭his practice far too often traps individuals and their families in a cycle of poverty and punishment that can be nearly impossible to escape,鈥 the DOJ letter to judges reads. 鈥淭he detrimental effects of unjust fines and fees fall disproportionately on low-income communities and people of color, who are overrepresented in the criminal justice system and already may face economic obstacles arising from discrimination, bias, or systemic inequities.鈥
The themes in the letter mirror a Missouri Supreme Court decision from 2019 that ended the practice of rural judges jailing people who couldn鈥檛 afford to pay their 鈥渂oard bills鈥 for stays in jail. Judges can avoid these unconstitutional practices by first holding hearings on whether defendants can pay court costs and then proceeding to sentencing, the DOJ letter advises. It also tells judges that the DOJ plans to seek proposals for pilot programs to help jurisdictions reform their fines and fees practices.
Along with the Maplewood settlement and a campaign called End Justice Fees launched by the ACLU, Fines and Fees Justice Center and Americans for Prosperity, such pilot programs can help the criminal justice system focus more on public safety and less on extracting money from poor people.
Nine years after Ferguson, that city鈥檚 insurance company is still battling with ArchCity Defenders over a debtors鈥 prison lawsuit. Similar federal civil rights lawsuits are slowly snaking their way through the courts in Oklahoma and South Carolina. Last year, the small city of Brookside, Ala., came under fire when journalists uncovered a scheme to use policing for profit by trapping poor people in debtors鈥 prisons.
Kennard Williams has seen the system in action. He鈥檚 an organizing manager at Action 50度灰视频, a civil rights nonprofit. He was drawn to activism in part because of his debtors鈥 prison experience in Maplewood, where he too was a victim. In 2011, unable to afford the fines the city imposed on him for traffic tickets, he faced the dilemma many poor people face: drive to work to make money, pay the fines and risk another arrest; or call into work.
He chose his job, and on more than one occasion got locked up in Maplewood because of it.
鈥淚t just puts burdens on people,鈥 Williams says. 鈥淎ny ticket could turn into a warrant and end up in a suspended license. The system was designed to make people fail.鈥