Article from Reason by Scott Shackford.
A lawsuit filed Thursday accuses an Arkansas judge of running an unconstitutional debtor’s prison, locking up defendants for low-level misdemeanor crimes, and suspending their driver’s licenses unless they fork over thousands in fines, even if they’re poor or unemployed.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has filed a class action suit representing six named clients and others against Arkansas state District Judge Mark Derrick, accusing him of violating citizens’ rights by locking them up in White County because of their inability to pay court-imposed costs and fees. Derrick oversees eight low-level courts in different towns in White County (population: 79,000) and two in nearby Prairie County. These district courts handle non-jury cases like traffic and contempt proceedings. Judges are elected to four-year terms.
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It’s important to note here that Derrick is handling misdemeanors, not felonies. He’s accused of imposing 30-day sentences for missing payments for fines for very low-level crimes. In fact, the lawsuit notes that these sentences are frequently twice the length of the sentences for the most serious of misdemeanors under state law. Defendants in his courtrooms are being punished more harshly for missing payments than for the underlying crimes. And the lawsuit notes that once somebody gets caught up in this cycle of missing payments, their jail time is not credited against this debt. The jail time is in addition to the debt imposed.
The 50-page lawsuit is full of horror stories of poor people stuck in this brutal cycle. One plaintiff, Kimberly Snodgrass, has been convicted by Derrick 10 separate times solely for her failure to pay fines. She has spent a third of her days since 2014 in jail because of these compliance issues and payment issues, not because she’s committing new crimes. The lawsuit claims she’s been kicked out of her place of residence four separate times because of these jailings. And because Derrick also suspended her driver’s license (which itself demands a fee to restore), she has a hard time maintaining a job. She owes the courts $500 a month for various fines and fees. If she fails to pay a single cent of that she faces a new warrant and more jail time.
Read the entire article at Reason.
Image Credit: By St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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That is also happening in Harris Cnty Houston TX where u have DA’s, Judges, Lawyers all in cahoots and will not give my daughter papers to get her daughter. Her exboyfriend’s family is full of corruption going on here in TX. They are abusing my Granddaugher (he is sexually) that is why they are keeping her away from her Mother who has legal custody. Making up cases that actually belong to other people. No one wants to help. They even know someone who aided and abetted theft of monies from my daughter. We have so much proof of corruption there and here in Collin Cnty TX and no one wants to hear us and see the proof. Why is everyone afraid to see documents and face the fact of what is going on. Everyone is covering up for everyone and we have dug up proof. You can contact me or I will give you my daughters number to call. We need help. Do you think we can contact Ivanka Trump? President Trump?
By the way, they signed the habias corpus and won’t give her a copy. Police will not help her. No one at all. All the while my Granddaughter is being abused and threatened; his ex-wife is dead (we have her on tape) they said suicide, no it was murder.
The whole thing stinks to high heaven, especially suspending a driver’s license for something that is not related to driving. – It further impairs a person’s ability to go to work and get the money to pay the fine. And not crediting the time against the sentence REALLY stinks. Remember in the movies “10 dollars or 10 days”? ,,,,but as far as just ignoring a fine,,,,,Shame on her. If she didn’t have the money it’s up to her to report to the court and either make arrangements or serve the time. If you can’t pay, you gotta stay.
Your comment makes the most sense. People don’t realize that in almost all cases like this and including unpaid income taxes, one can make arrangements with the authorities for a realistic way these can be paid. To avoid it and ignore the rulings is really very stupid and short-sighted because they will be pursued with a vengeance.