Jackson has agreed to settle a federal class-action lawsuit by ending the practice of jailing indigent people who can’t pay fines and fees in misdemeanor cases.

The city agreed to give indigent defendants the choice of paying off their fines at the rate of $25 per month or performing community service and receiving credit toward their unpaid fines at the rate of $9 per hour.

The agreement is part of a settlement reached in the lawsuit filed by Equal Justice Under Law, a nonprofit civil rights organization in Washington, D.C., and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law. The case was filed on behalf of seven Jackson residents who were ordered to jail by Jackson municipal judges for periods ranging from 26 to 90 days due to their inability to pay court debts imposed in misdemeanor cases.

“We applaud Mayor Yarber, the City Council, and the city attorney’s office for taking seriously the allegations in our lawsuit and the realities facing so many Jacksonians who struggle mightily just to make ends meet,” said Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center. “Because Jackson’s leaders recognized the need to change Jackson’s practices and agreed to a voluntary resolution of our lawsuit, the city avoided paying us hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees and saved the city from huge class-action damages. That money now can be used instead to improve the Jackson community.”

In addition, Jackson no longer will require people arrested for misdemeanors to post a money bond in order to avoid pretrial detention.  As an alternative to money bond, the city’s judges will have the option to place nonmonetary pre-trial conditions on people arrested for misdemeanor offenses. For example, a judge might order a person accused of shoplifting to stay away from the location of the alleged misdemeanor until their case is resolved.

Mayor Tony Yarber said “the city is committed to fair treatment of all of its citizens.”

“The leadership acknowledges the need to protect citizens from crime using all resources available while not imposing jail time on citizens solely based on their inability to pay fines related to misdemeanor crimes,” Yarber said. “It is a constitutional balance. Please know that no crime will go unpunished. All misdemeanors will be strictly enforced, and fines indeed will be paid. This settlement protects the indigent with an inability to pay their fines, which will be determined during court proceedings. The settlement also is reflective of changing policies across the nation. The city of Jackson remains committed to prosecuting all crime within its boundaries to the highest degree. It’s a new day in the city of Jackson.”

U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee signed the settlement agreement.

Lee had entered a declaratory judgment in Bell v. City of Jackson setting forth the limitations on incarcerating defendants for failure to pay fines.

The judgment states, “It violates the Constitution to incarcerate an individual, either before or after trial, solely because an individual does not have the ability to make a monetary payment. … Based upon this constitutional principle, no individual may be held in jail for nonpayment of fines, fees, and/or costs imposed by a court without a determination, following a meaningful inquiry into the individual’s ability to pay, that the individual willfully refuses or willfully failed to make payment. The meaningful inquiry into the individual’s ability to pay includes, but is not limited to, notice and an opportunity to present evidence.”

Contact Jimmie E. Gates at 601-961-7212 or [email protected].

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