Peter J. Coleman, Debtors and Creditors in America: Insolvency, Imprisonment for Debt, and Bankruptcy, 1607-1900 (1974). at 172627. art. I, 1, XXIII; Haw. See id. ^ See id. Const. Did the United States abolished debtors prisons in 1929? art. In December 2016, the ACLU of Nebraska released Unequal Justice: Bail and Modern Day Debtors Prisons in Nebraska. Some of these laws the state bans on debtors prisons were enacted over a hundred years ago, but can and should be invoked today.166 The task of operationalizing these bans for a new social evil rests in the hands of litigators and courts. Feb. 8, 2015) [hereinafter Complaint, Jenkins v. Jennings], http://equaljusticeunderlaw.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Complaint-Jennings-Debtors-Prisons-FILE-STAMPED.pdf [http://perma.cc/LM7S-LZW2]. Comeback of debtors' prisons: U.S. courts revive Dickensian practice of jailing people for failing to pay legal fees United States abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, but more than a third of . In this process, indigent people who cannot afford to pay court fines and fees are routinely incarcerated in violation of their constitutional rights. See, e.g., Lea Shepard, Creditors Contempt, 2011 BYU L. Rev. In Benton County, Wash., a quarter of those in jail are there because they owe fines and fees. at 4546. 556.016 (2000), repealed and replaced by Act effective Jan. 1, 2017, 2014 Mo. 833, 88687 (2013); Alexandra Natapoff, Misdemeanor Decriminalization, 68 Vand. Early prison systems in the United States focused on the power of hard labor, religion, and inhumane conditions to correct persons convicted of petty and serious crimes, as seen in early women's prisons and penitentiaries. Debtors' prisons waste taxpayer money and resources by jailing people who may never be able to pay their debts. This talk will explore how modern-day debtors' prisons push peoplepredominantly people of colorinto cycles of poverty, debt, and the criminal legal system and will examine promising solutions. In Strattman v. Studt,142 the defendant was sentenced to the statutory maximum of six months, a fine of $500, and costs.143 After having served his time, and when he couldnt pay his debt, he was imprisoned to sit out his debt at $3 per day.144 The Ohio Supreme Court held that costs are imposed for the purpose of lightening the burden on taxpayers financing the court system, not for a punitive, retributive, or rehabilitative purpose, as are fines.145 Observing that costs arose out of an implied contract with the court, Strattman held that [a] judgment for costs in a criminal case is a civil, not a criminal, obligation, and may be collected only by the methods provided for the collection of civil judgments.146 Future state supreme courts confronting the issue should embrace Strattmans logic and ban cost-related imprisonment. The Court identified some of those limits in a pair of equal protection cases in the 1970s: James v. Strange75 and Fuller v. Oregon.76, The debtor in James v. Strange owed $500 to pay for a court-appointed attorney and challenged the Kansas recoupment statute under which the state had attempted to recover the money.77 The Court struck down the recoupment statute because it failed to provide any of the exemptions provided by [the Kansas Code of Civil Procedure]. . See Richard E. James, Putting Fear Back into the Law and Debtors Back into Prison: Reforming the Debtors Prison System, 42 Washburn L.J. So far, the vast majority of academic commentators, litigators, legislatures, and other legal actors have focused on the federal protections extended under Bearden and its predecessors.165 Bearden represents a powerful tool for change, yet state law bans on debtors prisons could provide even greater protections for certain criminal justice debtors where the states interest in collecting isnt penal. art. First, assessing and collecting such debt may not be justifiable on penal grounds. c. 62) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that aimed to reform the powers of courts to detain debtors . ^ This possibility is made more credible by Justice OConnors note in the related case of Bearden v. Georgia that [d]ue process and equal protection principles converge in the Courts analysis in these cases. 461 U.S. 660, 665 (1983). ^ See Armstrong v. Ayres, 19 Conn. 540, 546 (1849); Johnson v. Temple, 4 Del. Many kinds of monetary obligations, then, have been held to fall outside the scope of the state bans. During this nation's early years, debtors were regularly imprisoned for failure to pay commercial debts. ^ See, e.g., Colo. Const. In the underlying criminal proceeding, Mr. Vaughn was not represented by counsel even though he was unemployed, looking for work, and could not afford a lawyer. Justice Douglas agreed the issue wasnt properly in front of the Court. See sources cited supra note 95. Indeed, federal constitutional law may compel an answer on this point. Led by James Herttell, Chairman and advocate for abolition, the committee resolved that "all . In many jurisdictions, debtors were not freed until they acquired outside funds to pay what they owed, or else worked off the debt through years of penal labor. ^ For constitutional provisions, see, for example, Ariz. Const. Const. The issue reached the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1970s, with two cases in which the Court found it unconstitutional to incarcerate people solely because they could not pay a public debt ( Williams v. Donations from readers like you are essential to sustaining this work. I, 22; Iowa Const. In February 2014, the Supreme Court of Ohio released a new "bench card" giving much-needed instructions to Ohio judges to explain how to avoid debtors' prison practices in their courtrooms. Debt collection practices like these have had a devastating impact on people of color in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Accessibility, A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books, The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, Criminal Justice Debt: A Barrier to Reentry, In for a Penny: The Rise of Americas New Debtors Prisons, Office of Judicial Servs., Supreme Court of Ohio, Collection of Fines and Court Costs in Adult Trial Courts, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/18/us/suit-alleges-scheme-in-criminal-costs-borne-by-new-orleanss-poor.html, http://aclu-wa.org/sites/default/files/attachments/Modern%20Day%20Debtor%27s%20Prison%20Final%20(3).pdf, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/23/get-out-of-jail-inc, http://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/downloads/case/amended_complaint-_harriet_cleveland_0.pdf, http://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/downloads/case/exhibit_a_to_joint_settlement_agreement_-_judicial_procedures-_140912.pdf, http://equaljusticeunderlaw.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Complaint-Jennings-Debtors-Prisons-FILE-STAMPED.pdf, http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf, https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0214_ForUpload_0.pdf, http://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/Fees%20and%20Fines%20FINAL.pdf, https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2455850/15-10-09-class-action-complaint-stamped.pdf, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/20/us/for-offenders-who-cant-pay-its-a-pint-of-blood-or-jail-time.html. Const. at 15556 (discussing child support payments); id. Debtors' Prisons The ACLU works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country. VI, 15; Tenn. Const. . art. Nonprofit journalism about criminal justice, A nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system, Intimate portraits of people who have been touched by the criminal justice system. 2255s Statute of Limitations. In fact, the recent bench card promulgated by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice OConnor begins as follows: Fines are separate from court costs. And when Massachusetts abolished imprisonment for petty debts in 1811, the 2 See Matthew 18:29-31 (New International Version) on imprisonment for debt. ^ To be found in the state bans of Arkansas, California, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, and Tennessee. The statute seems to have provided for a Bearden-like inquiry: [N]o convicted person may be held in contempt for failure to repay if he shows that his default was not attributable to an intentional refusal to obey the order of the court or to a failure on his part to make a good faith effort to make the payment. I, 28; N.D. Const. at 6061. Imprisonment-for-debt claims would impose a heightened requirement on financial obligations that, unlike traditional fines and restitution, really further noncriminal goals despite being imposed from within the criminal system. While the United States no longer has brick and mortar debtors' prisons, or "gaols for debtors" of private debts, the term "debtor's prison" in modern times sometimes refers to the practice of imprisoning indigent criminal defendants for matters related to either a fine or a fee imposed in criminal judgments. the united states abolished debtors' prisons in 1929. Rev. Debtors' Prisons | American Civil Liberties Union at 15657 (discussing taxes). And many debtors currently caught in the cogs of the criminal justice system would have no such property. ^ See Letter from Christine Link, Exec. See, e.g., Ex parte Phillips, 771 So. art. They ultimately settled. And most troubling, debtors' prisons create a racially-skewed, two-tiered system of justice in which the poor receive harsher, longer punishments for committing the same crimes as the rich, simply because they are poor. (Oct. 10, 2012), http://static.aclu-co.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/2012-10-10-Bender-Dailey-Wallace.pdf [http://perma.cc/5F9Y-U7RC]; Letter from Rebecca T. Wallace, Staff Atty, ACLU of Colo., and Mark Silverstein, Legal Dir., ACLU of Colo., to Herb Atchison, Mayor of Westminster, Colo. (Dec. 16, 2013), http://static.aclu-co.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2013-12-16-Atchison-ACLU.pdf [http://perma.cc/7ZZS-X3RL]. The City of Sherwoods hot check court is part of a labyrinthine and lucrative system in which defendants charged with bouncing even a single for $15 have ultimately been charged thousands of dollars in court costs, fines, and fees payable to the city and the county. Most importantly for present purposes, the debts at issue historically were contractual, not criminal. 774, 776 (Ala. 1938). ^ See Complaint, Fant v. Ferguson, supra note 48; Complaint, Jenkins v. Jennings, supra note 24. See Settlement Agreement, Cleveland v. Montgomery, supra note 18; Agreement to Settle Injunctive and Declaratory Relief Claims, Mitchell v. City of Montgomery, No. Now, the imprisonment-for-debt claims wouldnt challenge the propriety of assessing such charges in the first place. But some strict liability crimes, like statutory rape, are more easily analogized to traditional crimes despite the absence of a mens rea. Stat. Const. A century and a half later, in 1983, the Supreme Court affirmed that incarcerating indigent debtors was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection clause. L. Rev. 1706, 172729 (2015). amend. State and local courts have increasingly attempted to supplement their funding by charging fees to people convicted of crimes, including fees for public defenders, prosecutors, court administration, jail operation, and probation supervision. This kind of open-ended standard, taken on its own terms, may generate a number of problems. ^ See, e.g., Lee v. State, 75 Ala. 29, 30 (1883); Mosley v. Mayor of Gallatin, 78 Tenn. 494, 497 (1882). Instead, it seems to be driven primarily by the need to raise revenue, an illegitimate state interest for punishment, and one that, in practice, functions as a regressive tax.9 Second, imprisonment for criminal justice debts has a distinctive and direct financial impact. II, 27; Neb. In the United States, debtors prisons were banned under federal law in 1833. Const. I, 13; N.M. Const. I, 14; N.J. Const. 853, 855 (1973). See U.S. Const. ^ See William J. Brennan, Jr., State Constitutions and the Protection of Individual Rights, 90 Harv. 99-37-13 (West 2015) ([A] default . Const. 1968) (en banc). http://www.npr.org/2014/05/24/314866421/measures-aimed-at-keeping-people-out-of-jail-punish-the-poor. .); Developments in the Law Policing, 128 Harv. The baseline principle, of course, is that a court may consider a defendants financial resources to inform its decision whether to impose jail time, fines, or other sanctions.161 Without this discretion, courts might impose prison terms unnecessarily, to avoid the risk of assessing a fine on a judgment-proof defendant. Despite arising out of a criminal proceeding, costs are cleanly distinguishable from fines, restitution, and forfeiture in their basic purpose: compensating for or subsidizing the governments marginal expenditures on criminal proceedings. . And the Court has made clear this discretion is central to the core penal goals of deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution.162 Against that baseline, the tradition of Bearden simply mandates that once a sentencing court has imposed a monetary obligation, it may not convert that obligation into imprisonment for failure to pay absent a special finding, a basic threshold that ensures the defendant isnt invidiously punished for being poor. art. ^ See Natapoff, supra note 1, at 1098 & n.208; Developments in the Law Policing, supra note 5, at 1734. Victims can avoid jail only if they pay the entire amount of outstanding court fines and fees up front and in full. The new American debtors prisons seem problematic along multiple dimensions. art. In the process, we were lowering our standards for what constituted an offense deserving of imprisonment, and, more broadly, we were losing our sense of how serious, how truly serious, it is to incarcerate. The statewide lawsuit was filed on behalf of drivers who have had their drivers licenses suspended in violation of their statutory, due process, and equal protection rights. See, e.g., Bullen v. State, 518 So. The ACLU of North Carolina is a member of the Court Costs and Fees Working Group, which is working to end the practice of modern-day debtors' prisons in North Carolina. (14 Gray) 324, 328 (1859). 1983); Kansas City v. Stricklin, 428 S.W.2d 721, 72526 (Mo. . (quoting lawyer Alec Karakatsanis)); The New Debtors Prisons, The Economist (Nov. 16, 2013), http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21589903-if-you-are-poor-dont-get-caught-speeding-new-debtors-prisons [http://perma.cc/5M9N-74HT]. One-Time Monthly Annual. I, 16; Vt. Const. . For example, a state could plausibly maintain that imprisonment for nonpayment of costs attendant to crime helps to deter criminal behavior, such that abolishing such imprisonment for civil debts, while maintaining it for criminal debts, is reasonable. Myers v. State, 1 Conn. 502 (1816) (holding that a defendant who rented his carriage on Sunday, a crime punishable by a fine of twenty dollars, couldnt be found guilty without a showing of mens rea). . 4:15-cv-00252 (E.D. And finally (of course) some states havent taken much action, if any, to address the issue nor has it been raised in the federal courts within the last decade, apart from the litigation previously discussed. ^ See, e.g., Mich. Const. 2014) (Liability on a claim; a specific sum of money due by agreement or otherwise. if the judgment debtor unjustly refuses to apply the identified property towards the satisfaction of a judgment; however, the court struck it down under the ban on imprisonment for debt when contempt was used to require the judgment debtor to set aside and deliver a portion of his/her future income toward the satisfaction of the judgment debt. Id. L. Rev. Do debtors' prisons still exist? | HowStuffWorks .); see also Jerome Hall, Interrelations of Criminal Law and Torts: I, 43 Colum. Part II covers a range of preexisting federal constitutional limitations on imprisonment for criminal justice debt. As the Ohio Supreme Court put it: In todays society, no one, in good conscience, can contend that a nine-dollar fine for crashing a stop sign is deserving of three days in jail if one is unable to pay.140. Dec. 23, 2014) (en banc), http://www.courts.mo.gov/sup/index.nsf/d45a7635d4bfdb8f8625662000632638/fe656f36d6b518a886257db80081d43c [http://perma.cc/BTX3-4ERC]. . For example, violations of municipal ordinances boil down to the regulatory crimes category in states where municipalities are not empowered to imprison. at 65 (Washington). ^ For example, in 1855, Massachusetts passed a statute saying: Imprisonment for debt is hereby forever abolished in Massachusetts. Appleton, 71 Mass. I, 10; Colo. Const. When the offenders cant pay for all of this, they may be jailed even if they have already served their time for the offense. DRAFT DO NOT CITE OR CIRCULATE 3 by Charles Dickens in works like David Copperfield.7 "The State of Georgia has come a long way since it was founded as a safe haven for debtors," laments a student commentator.8 "Yes, America, we have returned to debtors' prisons," declares one sociologist.9 Take the story of Harriet Cleveland as a window into the problem: Yet, as noted, they may be jailed for failing to show up at a civil hearing or for not resolving civil debt. See State v. Thierfelder, 495 N.W.2d 669, 673 (Wis. 1993); see also Wis. Stat. Eventually, federal debtors' prisons were abolished in 1833, leaving the power to implement debtors' prisons in the hands of the states, many of which followed Washington's lead. November 6, 2017 By: Bobby Casey, Managing Director GWP Do an internet search on debtors' prisons, and the top searches will Ultimately, debtors' prisons are not only unfair and insensible, they are also illegal. In 2012 and 2013, the ACLU of Colorado sent letters to Chief Justice Bender of the Colorado Supreme Court and three Colorado municipalities. art. Ala. Nov. 17, 2014) [hereinafter Settlement Agreement, Mitchell v. Montgomery], http://equaljusticeunderlaw.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Final-Settlement-Agreement.pdf [http://perma.cc/R8S9-HW4N]. Stay informed about our latest work in Debtors' Prisons First name Last name Email ZIP code ^ Id. How debt can lead to prison - Vox 1312, 1316 (2015). In the United States, debtors' prisons were banned under federal law in 1833. Ending Modern-Day Debtors' Prisons | American Civil Liberties Union https://harvardlawreview.org/2015/11/state-bans-on-debtors-prisons-and-criminal-justice-debt-appendix. 939.12 (2014) (defining crime). ^ See Recent Legislation, supra note 23, at 1313, 1315. ^ See, e.g., Robertson, supra note 3 (describing how a debtors mother and sister scraped together what money they [could]). art. The history of US debtors prisons and abolition of jail time See id. Ret. But sometimes, the relevant statute explicitly tags the criminal justice debt as civil or as receiving civil protections.152, For example, in some jurisdictions, courts have held that violations of municipal ordinances constitute civil actions.153 In Kansas City v. Stricklin,154 for example, the Supreme Court of Missouri noted that these proceedings are not prosecutions for crime in a constitutional sense.155 Case law in a number of states supports this approach,156 although a fifty-state survey cannot be conducted here. And more than 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear: Judges cannot send people to jail just because they are too poor to pay their court fines. Read More. Bd. ^ See Settlement Agreement, Mitchell v. Montgomery, supra note 52, at 23. I, 17; Ariz. Const. But for those without friends in high places, debtors imprisonment could turn into a life sentence. See Werdenbaugh, 20 W. Va. at 593, 598. . Debtor's prisons were abolished in the United States in 1833. Legal commentators have long recognized that the federal constitution imposes limits on imprisonment for criminal justice debt under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses. art. Stat. Imprisonment for Debt | NCpedia The result is one of the most draconian debtors prisons uncovered by the ACLU since 2010. ^ Complaint, Cleveland v. Montgomery, supra note 14, at 2; see Stillman, supra note 11. Interpreting fines for regulatory offenses to fall under the bans of many states is consistent with the bans text, purpose, and original meaning. 227, 234 (2013). As the literature has long recognized, the abolition of debtors prisons was tightly constrained in scope.103 The doctrinal limits on the bans coverage cabined them along two dimensions: First, debtors evading payment were sculpted out from the bans. at 668. the united states abolished debtors' prisons in 1929. Laws 941, 1152 (to be codified at Mo. ^ Id. This Part outlines those limits, which stem from two main lines of cases in the 1970s and early 1980s, and undergird almost all debt-imprisonment litigation today. So, in 1833, Congress abolished the practice under federal law. . at 131. 1965). But how could that be? What are some types of debt that people are sent to jail for not paying? at 61 (Marshall, J., dissenting); see also id. Id. at 2410, as a principal justification for overruling precedent in federal stare decisis doctrine). The report documents local courts that have a pattern of criminalizing poverty and perpetuating racial injustice through the unconstitutional enforcement of low-level offenses. 549, 55758 (1941). A century and a half later, in 1983, the Supreme Court affirmed that incarcerating indigent debtors was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendments Equal Protection clause. Contact us at fees@acluofnc.org or (919) 391-7290. . For indigent people, a civil proceeding regarding private debt say, an unpaid payday loan may have criminal ramifications; conversely, involvement in a criminal case may create debt, causing a new civil proceeding. 277 (2014). . Unbeknownst to her, a collection agency had filed a lawsuit against her, and, having never received the notice instructing her to appear, she had missed her date in court. art. Louisianas Debtors Prisons: An Appeal to Justice, https://www.aclumaine.org/en/news/prison-being-poor-time-end-debtors-prison-system-maine, https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-maine-calls-legislature-end-debtors-prisons, filed lawsuits challenging "pay or stay" sentences, 2015, the ACLU of Maine called for an end to practices that result in the jailing of indigent people who cannot afford to pay court fines and fees.
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