In Georgia’s criminal legal system, wealth is synonymous with freedom.  Hundreds of defendants, including Margery Mock and Eric Ogden, are routinely jailed pretrial due to their inability to afford the predetermined bail bond required for their release. In Glynn County, where we’ve sued, persons accused of misdemeanors who cannot afford to hire a private attorney are left in the dark due to a systemic failure to provide public defense representation. This arbitrary and wealth-based pretrial detention system is not only unconstitutional, but cruel given the devastating ramifications it has on individuals who cannot buy their freedom – ramifications of which include a disregard of one’s presumption of innocence, economic and emotional hardship on families, and potential loss of one’s job. This federal class action lawsuit seeks to disrupt these unlawful detention and counsel schemes and calls on Glynn County to consider fair, efficient alternative conditions of release that don’t depend on how much money a person has, and to remedy its deficient provision of public defense services. We represent named Plaintiffs Margery Mock and Eric Ogden in this suit. Both Ms. Mock and Mr. Ogden were arrested on accusations of misdemeanor criminal trespass. Ms. Mock is 28 years old and at the time of her arrest was without stable housing and staying in a storage unit with all of her belongings. Upon her arrest, her bail was automatically set at $1,256, which she could not afford to pay.  The ACLU, the ACLU of Georgia, and local civil and criminal right champion James Yancey, Jr. join in this suit to demand that Glynn County no longer deprive poor arrestees of their right to due process, equal protection, the aid of counsel, and pretrial liberty. Incarcerating people based solely on their inability to buy their freedom is not justice – and we will not stand for it.   

In the latest front in the nationwide fight against criminalization of poverty and, specifically, debtors' prisons, on June 1, 2017, the ACLU's Racial Justice Program, the ACLU of South Carolina, and Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC filed a federal lawsuit challenging the illegal arrest and incarceration of indigent people in Lexington County, South Carolina, for failure to pay fines and fess, without determining willfulness or providing assistance to counsel. Those targeted by this long-standing practice can avoid jail only if they pay the entire amount of outstanding court fines and fees up front and in full. Indigent people who are unable to pay are incarcerated for weeks to months without ever seeing a judge, having a court hearing, or receiving help from a lawyer. The result is one of the most draconian debtors’ prisons uncovered by the ACLU since 2010.

In Nashville, local officials keep money posted as bail to pay fines and fees. This happens even when the person whose bond was posted shows up to their required court dates. Under a local court rule and policies from the criminal clerk, pretrial release is conditioned on future payment, which leverages pretrial freedom to make money for the government.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the ACLU's Criminal Law Reform Project filed a federal lawsuit in May of 2013, on behalf of Plaintiffs Gilbert Weber and Tyrone Hightower, challenging the Grand Rapids Police Department's longstanding practice of arresting innocent people for criminal trespass on commercial property without warning and without the business owner's knowledge. Even where those arrested are patronizing the business in question, police justify these illegal arrests by pointing to form letters signed by business owners months or years prior to the arrest agreeing to prosecute "trespassers."

In Oklahoma cash bail is being used keep poor people behind bars. In Canadian County, Oklahoma if you have the money, you get out of jail. If you are poor, you stay in. That’s why we sued.