ACLU sues Mississippi city over ‘debtors’ prisons’

“We have decided that discontinuing our services in Alabama is in the best interest of our organization as well as our municipal partners who were simply looking for an alternative to incarceration when collecting out-standing probationary fines”, according to the company statement.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Kennedy worked at a baseball field in downtown Biloxi and earned well below the poverty level with an income of under $9,000 a year.

Anderson, who has a disability, was at home when police arrested him on a warrant charging him with failure to pay a traffic fine, according to the ACLU. Discovering the arrest warrant, he promptly put her in handcuffs and took her to a Gulfport jail. Kennedy spent the next five days and nights in a holding cell.

“It was filthy”, she told the Guardian. “Kennedy was afraid for her daughter, who did not know where she was. For the first three days, they wouldn’t even let me tell my kids where I was”.

Defendants in the case are the City of Biloxi, Biloxi Police Chief John Miller, Municipal Judge James Steele and for-profit Judicial Correction Services Inc.

Poor people are being illegally arrested and jailed in Biloxi, Miss., because they can not afford to pay court fines and fees sought by the city to generate revenue, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

A lawsuit filed by the ACLU against the town of Biloxi, Mississippi reveals a disturbing trend of cities jailing poor people when they can’t pay fines for minor offenses.

“However, based on media inquiries, we believe the ACLU is mistaken about the process in Biloxi, and we look forward to explaining it to the ACLU”, Creel said in a statement.

A city spokesman Vincent Creel spoke out against the ACLU’s claims (of course…) saying that the city of Biloxi, “treats all defendants fairly under the law”.

The plaintiffs ask that Biloxi be barred from sending people to jail without a lawyer and without a hearing on defendants’ ability to pay.

Being jailed can be a major setback to people who are already struggling to get by.

Nusrat Choudhury, an ACLU attorney involved in the lawsuit, called the Biloxi system “a debtors’ prison from the dark ages”.

“It’s essentially a jailhouse shakedown”.

That’s not just an idle threat.

Debtors’ prisons were abolished in the United States nearly two centuries ago. Those suing also want Biloxi to pay them damages. In 2010, the ACLU exposed similar practices they say are akin to modern-day debtors’ prisons in Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio and Washington. “He was jailed for seven nights before finally being brought before the Biloxi Municipal Court”.

That makes people like Qumotria Kennedy increasingly vulnerable to the trap set for them – pay up or go to jail.

As a result, Kennedy said she lost her part-time job and fears being arrested again if she can’t keep up with her monthly court payments. She still owes at least $1,251, the suit says.