The settlement agreement was approved by the court on June 28, 2016.

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.”