Const. (9 Allen) 489 (1864)). Dist. As of the time of publication, Equal Justice Under Law had litigated (or is litigating) similar issues against Jennings, Missouri; Ferguson, Missouri; New Orleans, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; and Rutherford County, Tennessee. Purporting to save taxpayer dollars, these outfits force the offenders themselves to foot the bill for parole, reentry, drug rehab, electronic monitoring, and other services (some of which are not even assigned by a judge). DRAFT DO NOT CITE OR CIRCULATE 3 by Charles Dickens in works like David Copperfield.7 "The State of Georgia has come a long way since it was founded as a safe haven for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: . I, 15; Ill. Const. . PDF New American Debtors' Prisons - Harvard University infra notes 5559 and accompanying text (discussing judicially created solutions in certain states). The new American debtors prisons seem problematic along multiple dimensions. Stat. at 26065; Becky A. Vogt, State v. Allison: Imprisonment for Debt in South Dakota, 46 S.D. amend. II, 27; Neb. Did the United States abolished debtors prisons in 1929? Yet, citizens like Sanders and Ford are, to this day, routinely jailed after failing to repay debt. The Court also likened the classification to the invidious discrimination of Rinaldi v. Yeager, 384 U.S. 305 (1966). Const. This Note takes a first pass at this missing constitutional argument. Until that time, failure to pay what you owed could and did land you in jail. art. In other words, poor people with debt face criminal consequences but without the Constitutional protections afforded to criminal defendants. . art. art. Although at common law, scienter requirements were generally necessary to a criminal charge (hence the regular practice of courts reading them into statutes),121 the development of criminal law for regulatory purposes during industrialization made it increasingly desirable to impose strict liability in a number of situations. See Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books 7172 (Robert Douglas-Fairhurst ed., Oxford Univ. As one might guess, the states have split on whether costs fall within the scope of the bans. 277 (2014). Over one hundred years later, another author identified the same carve-outs and concluded theres a de facto debtors prison system in the United States. ^ See Shepard, supra note 6, at 152930 (describing the rules origin in the common law precept that creditors must exhaust legal remedies before turning to equitable ones). Through the Tennessee Coalition for Sensible Justice, the ACLU of Tennessee supported the passage of SB 802/HB 1173, which would amend the law to offer courts alternatives to revoking peoples licenses, including allowing a person to file an indigence affidavit and have all their fees and fines waived, giving courts the ability to permit restricted licenses to allow people to drive to work, school, recovery programs and other necessities, and setting up a payment plan to pay the fees over time. ^ See, e.g., Ala. Const. . Const. 2:13-cv-00732 (M.D. Indeed, federal constitutional law may compel an answer on this point. For example, violations of municipal ordinances boil down to the regulatory crimes category in states where municipalities are not empowered to imprison. art. Lanz v. Dowling, 110 So. . except the homestead exemption.78 Avoiding broad commentary on the general validity of various state recoupment statutes,79 the Court nonetheless expressed concern with the classification drawn by Kansass recoupment statute, which strip[ped] from indigent defendants the array of protective exemptions Kansas ha[d] erected for other civil judgment debtors,80 including state exemptions from attachment and restrictions on wage garnishment.81 While a state could prioritize its claim to money over other creditors (say, by giving its liens priority), [t]his does not mean . ^ E.g., In re Nichols, 749 So. These include enforcing state and federal law requiring judges to hold indigency hearings, creating sliding scales of fines, imposing meaningful community service instead of jail time, and advising defendants of their right to counsel if they face possible incarceration for unpaid fines. art. III, 38; Mich. Const. Other. The ACLU and ACLU affiliates are uncovering how debtors' prisons across the country undermine the criminal justice system and threaten civil rights and civil liberties. ^ See Complaint, Fant v. Ferguson, supra note 48; Complaint, Jenkins v. Jennings, supra note 24. See Act of May 5, 2015, 2015 Ga. Laws 422. Read more. 2014) (Liability on a claim; a specific sum of money due by agreement or otherwise. According to Martin, this ambiguity has grave consequences. In other states, the court simply could not imprison for failure to pay the debt, although it could pursue other execution remedies available at law. In the late 80s and early 90s, she says, there was a major uptick in the number of rules, at the state level but also in the counties, indicating jail time for failure to pay various fines and fees.. II, 13; Or. 2d 227, 233 (Ala. Crim. Read More. art. Though poverty has increased in Lexington County since 2012with poverty rates for Black and Latino residents at more than double the rate for white residentsthe County continues to rely on revenue from fines and fees in magistrate court cases. Some judges will rule that the debtor is not legitimately indigent and is, instead, willfully neglecting the debt because the debtor showed up to the courtroom wearing a flashy jacket or expensive tattoos. 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. art. See Thacher v. Williams, 80 Mass. 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. For one, indigent debtors do not know whom to negotiate with the DMV, which mailed the speeding ticket, or the debt collector that now seems to be pursuing the matter. . The result is one of the most draconian debtors prisons uncovered by the ACLU since 2010. 778, 787 n.79 (1969) (listing sources). 14, 2015) (notes on file with Harvard Law School Library). In 2016, the ACLU of Texas sued the City of Sante Fe for unconstitutionally jailing people for low-level offenses simply because they are poor. Int. Cf. Stay informed about our latest work in Debtors' Prisons First name Last name Email ZIP code II, 18; Ark. ^ Id. In addition, the ACLU asks for a "bench card" to remind judges in all courts across the state that jail is not a punishment for poverty. at 48 n.9 (majority opinion). Most importantly, the 1983 decision in Bearden v. Georgia compelled local judges to distinguish between debtors who are too poor to pay and those who have the financial ability but willfully refuse to do so. art. See id. The American tradition of debtors imprisonment seems to be alive and well. . ^ E.g., Bearden v. Georgia, 461 U.S. 660, 66970 (1983). ^ James v. Strange, 407 U.S. 128, 140 (1972) (quoting Rinaldi v. Yeager, 384 U.S. 305, 309 (1966)). Costs trigger the precedents, discussed above, of James and Fuller.147 Many state bans on imprisonment for debt provide equally (or more) unequivocal protections to the civil debtor than the exemption statutes in James did; a strong logic therefore suggests that the Court could more widely enforce Jamess prohibition on jailing defendants for failing to pay court costs. And in Ferguson, Mo., simmering anger with the police and court system has given rise to a pair of lawsuits aimed at the local practice of imprisoning indigent debtors. 2d 68, 72 (Miss. amend. art. ^ See id. In practice, different judges have different criteria for deciphering whether a debtor is indigent. Some judges will determine how much money a debtor has by having him or her complete an interview or a short questionnaire. The city of Montgomery settled in 2014, agreeing to conduct the constitutionally required hearings, produce audio recordings,55 provide public defenders, and adopt a presumption of indigence for defendants at or below 125% of the federal poverty level.56 In Ohio, Chief Justice Maureen OConnor took rapid action, issuing guidance materials to clarify the procedures trial and municipal judges should take before imprisoning debtors for failure to pay.57 The Supreme Court of Washington confirmed in March 2015 that the sentencing judge must make an individualized inquiry into the defendants current and future ability to pay before the court imposes [criminal justice debt].58 And in August 2015, Ferguson Municipal Judge Donald McCullin withdrew almost 10,000 arrest warrants issued before 2015.59 As for legislatures, in 2014, the Colorado General Assembly almost unanimously passed a bill requiring courts to make ability-to-pay determinations on the record before imprisoning debtors for nonpayment of debt.60 And in 2015, both the Georgia61 and Missouri62 legislatures passed laws addressing the issue. Const. This ACLU report presents the results of a year-long investigation into modern-day debtors' prisons in Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Washington, and Georgia. ^ See Recent Legislation, supra note 23, at 1313 n.13. It shows that poor defendants are being jailed at increasingly alarming rates for failing to pay legal debts, creating a racially-skewed, two-tiered system of justice that violates the basic constitutional rights of poor people. In fact, under the state law protections, criminal justice debtors would face a much friendlier inquiry than they would under Beardens freestanding equal protection jurisprudence.160 This is true under either of the two rules detailed above. See, e.g., Letter from Mark Silverstein, Legal Dir., ACLU of Colo., and Rebecca T. Wallace, Staff Atty, ACLU of Colo., to Chief Justice Michael Bender, Colo. Supreme Court, and Judge John Dailey, Chair, Criminal Procedure Comm. L.Q. . Oct. 9, 2015) [hereinafter Complaint, Bell v. Jackson], https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2455850/15-10-09-class-action-complaint-stamped.pdf [https://perma.cc/3CKT-XXX4] (describing reduction of debt at a rate of $58 per day of work); Karakatsanis, supra note 3, at 262 ($25 per day). In October 2015, the ACLU of Washington and the ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit against Benton County in central Washington over its unconstitutional system for collecting court-imposed debts. art. Matthew 18:24-26 . 833, 88687 (2013); Alexandra Natapoff, Misdemeanor Decriminalization, 68 Vand. Read More. 558.006 by Act effective Jan. 1, 2017, 2014 Mo. Rev. . As much of the furor regarding contemporary debtors prisons revolves around municipalities, this is no minor point. 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. Def., Office of the State Pub. Eventually, the movement against imprisonment for debt would produce forty-one state constitutional provisions.95 Some of the provisions read as flat bans;96 others have various carve-outs and exceptions in the text.97 But subsequent case law narrows the practical differences among them by reading into the flat bans largely the same carve-outs.98 The nine states that havent constitutionalized a ban on imprisonment for debt Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia all have taken statutory action.99 Some statutes look on the surface a lot like the constitutional bans.100 Practically, some explicitly abolished the old writ of capias ad satisfaciendum (holding the body of the debtor in satisfaction of the debt),101 and others reinvigorated procedural protections for debtors who genuinely couldnt pay.102, Of course, these bans dont straightforwardly apply to criminal justice debt. And when Massachusetts abolished imprisonment for petty debts in 1811, the 2 See Matthew 18:29-31 (New International Version) on imprisonment for debt. App. Daley v. Datacom Systems Corp., 585 N.E.2d 51 (Ill. 1991), the Supreme Court of Illinois held that municipal fines counted as debts for the purposes of the Collection Agency Act. v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 10506 (1973) (Marshall, J., dissenting); Johnson v. Bredesen, 624 F.3d 742, 749 (6th Cir. But the spirit behind them ought to drive other constitutional actors executives, legislators, and citizens to take swift action.167. 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. 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. See Ill. Const. I, 14; N.J. Const. So what do we really know about modern-day debtors imprisonment how it returned, when, and where? ^ Id. In this process, indigent people who cannot afford to pay court fines and fees are routinely incarcerated in violation of their constitutional rights. The question was, how? Modern-Day Debtors' Prisons: Race and Revenue Generation in Courts 446, 447 (1846); State v. McCarroll, 70 So. During the 20th century, on three separate occasions, the Supreme Court affirmed the unconstitutionality of incarcerating those too poor to repay debt. I, 19; Idaho Const. Alec Karakatsanis, a lawyer who last year brought one of the only lawsuits to successfully challenge a local court system for jailing indigent debtors, says that the first step was the normalization of incarceration. . 938.29(4) (2015) (specifying that such debtors shall not be denied any of the protections afforded any other civil judgment debtor). In December 2016, the ACLU of Nebraska released Unequal Justice: Bail and Modern Day Debtors Prisons in Nebraska. Const. ^ See, e.g., City of Fort Madison v. Bergthold, 93 N.W.2d 112, 116 (Iowa 1958); Voelkel v. City of Cincinnati, 147 N.E. I, 22; Iowa Const. .). at 39899; Williams, 399 U.S. at 242. The federal protections under the Bearden and James lines of cases are important tools for ensuring our criminal justice system doesnt imprison for poverty. III, 30; Mo. Justice Douglas agreed the issue wasnt properly in front of the Court. In the 1970s and 1980s, he says, we started to imprison more people for lesser crimes. Of course, while the disparity between how indigent and well-heeled defendants are treated, see supra note 87 and accompanying text, is arguably not right, it seems reasonable enough to pass rational basis scrutiny, see, e.g., FCC v. Beach Commcns, Inc., 508 U.S. 307, 31415 (1993); U.S. R.R. art. at 256 (citing Barnes v. State, 19 Conn. 398 (1849)). 2:14-cv-00186 (M.D. The legal revolution which has brought federal law to the fore must not be allowed to inhibit the independent protective force of state law for without it, the full realization of our liberties cannot be guaranteed.). But, as argued below, the state bans on debtors prisons can supplement Bearden and they may well be relevant to the inquiry under James. Yet during this period, the city, through the Biloxi Municipal Court, has aggressively pursued court fines and fee payments from indigent people by issuing warrants when payments are missed. 143, 14954 (2002) (discussing civil contempt); id. ^ This category would include constitutional provisions with an express carve-out for crime, e.g., Okla. Const. 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. Is this debt private or public? See, e.g., Ex parte Phillips, 771 So. In the United States, debtors prisons were banned under federal law in 1833. I, 1, XXIII; Haw. ^ See Peter J. Coleman, Debtors and Creditors in America 24956 (1974). But aside from clear policy concerns, they may violate constitutional laws at both the federal and state levels. 556.061(29)) (defining infraction). ^ The constitutional imprisonment-for-debt provisions are as follows: Ala. Const. ^ See Natapoff, supra note 1, at 1098 & n.208; Developments in the Law Policing, supra note 5, at 1734. 1312, 1316 (2015). at 131. The majority rule, often tersely stated, is that they dont.141 But at least one court has held otherwise. This concern is amplified by the growing trend toward outsourcing portions of the criminal justice system, such as collection, to private actors like Sentinel Offender Services, a probation company that wields the threat of imprisonment via contract with the state. Also in this category are costs of imprisonment (billed to inmates in 41 states), and of parole and probation (44 states). 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. 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. . ^ See, e.g., Karakatsanis, supra note 3, at 26364. Contact us at fees@acluofnc.org or (919) 391-7290. As noted above, the state bans on debtors prisons have been given short shrift in the legal literature and recent litigation.91 This Part begins by providing a brief historical overview of the state bans92 and then argues that ignoring them is a legal mistake: these imprisonment-for-debt provisions plausibly extend to some parts of contemporary debtors prisons. To the contrary, regulatory offenses became prominent within American criminal law only after the abolition of debtors prisons.131 The Court in Morissette v. United States132 identified the pilot of the [regulatory offenses] movement in such crimes as selling liquor to an habitual drunkard and selling adulterated milk, citing cases from 1849,133 1864,134 and 1865.135 A law review article published in 1933 called the steadily growing stream of offenses punishable without any criminal intent whatsoever a recent movement in criminal law,136 placing the beginnings of the trend in the middle of the nineteenth century.137 By comparison, all but a few states had enacted their bans on debtors prisons by the 1850s.138 So reading the carve-outs as unrelated to regulatory crimes is consistent with both text and original meaning. The percentage of people living in poverty in Biloxi has doubled since 2009. . How debt can lead to prison - Vox The ACLU Racial Justice Program and allies across the country are bringing lawsuits and advocacy to expose and challenge these practices. 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. ^ See William J. Brennan, Jr., State Constitutions and the Protection of Individual Rights, 90 Harv. See Richard E. James, Putting Fear Back into the Law and Debtors Back into Prison: Reforming the Debtors Prison System, 42 Washburn L.J. The complaint, Kennedy v. City of Biloxi, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in Gulfport and cites violations of the U.S. Constitution's Fourth and 14th Amendments. Ending Debtors' Prisons | ACLU of North Carolina 691, 691 (Iowa 1894). ^ See Complaint, Jenkins v. Jennings, supra note 24. 4; Wash. Const. art. milestone in the process of abolitionin the state of New York and throughout the United States. By reading a z leveled books best pizza sauce at whole foods reading a z leveled books best pizza sauce at whole foods See sources cited supra note 95. State Bans on Debtors' Prisons and Criminal Justice Debt The Twelve Tables, the oldest codification of Roman law we have, permitted its usage in 451 B.C. 899, 902 (Iowa 1932). . at 65 (Washington). Next came the fiscal crisis of the 2000s, during which many states were contending with budget deficits and looking for ways to save4. art. http://www.npr.org/2014/05/24/314866421/measures-aimed-at-keeping-people-out-of-jail-punish-the-poor. Laying the provisions out in one place seems necessary, as the stringcites available in the legal literature are now outdated. Did the US ever have debtors prison? - Promisekit.org 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. ^ See Charles Warren, Bankruptcy in United States History 52 (1935). 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. ^ Complaint, Cleveland v. Montgomery, supra note 14, at 2; see Stillman, supra note 11. Sept. 16, 2015); Complaint, Fant v. Ferguson, supra note 48; Equal Justice Under the Law, Shutting Down Debtors Prisons, http://equaljusticeunderlaw.org/wp/current-cases/ending-debtors-prisons/ [http://perma.cc./56WT-6RLC]. ^ For a similar analysis, see State v. Anton, 463 A.2d 703, 70607 (Me. at 56; see also William J. Stuntz, The Pathological Politics of Criminal Law, 100 Mich. L. Rev. 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. And in the face of mounting budget deficits at the state and local level, courts across the country have used aggressive tactics to collect these unpaid fines and fees, including for traffic offenses and other low-level offenses. 853, 855 (1973). Bd. Cleveland sued the city, alleging that Montgomerys debt collection procedures and her resultant incarceration violated the Alabama and U.S. Constitutions. (10 Allen) 199 (1865); Commonwealth v. Waite, 93 Mass. Imprisonment for indebtedness was commonplace. 560.031(5) (2000) ([T]he fine may be collected by any means authorized for the enforcement of money judgments.) (to be transferred to Mo. Nearly two centuries ago, the United States formally abolished the incarceration of people who failed to pay off debts. that a State may impose unduly harsh or discriminatory terms merely because the obligation is to the public treasury rather than to a private creditor.82 The Court suggested that it was applying rational basis scrutiny, although in light of the Courts strong language some judges have read James as subjecting the classification to some form of heightened scrutiny.83, Similarly, the debtor in Fuller v. Oregon owed fees for an attorney and an investigator.84 But in Fuller, the Court upheld Oregons recoupment statute because the defendant wouldnt be forced to pay unless he was able.85 The majority found that the recoupment statute provided all of the same protections as those provided to other judgment debtors, and was therefore wholly free of the kind of discrimination that was held in James v. Strange to violate the Equal Protection Clause.86 Justice Marshall, joined by Justice Brennan in dissent, cited the Oregon constitutional ban on imprisonment for debt and pointed out that indigent defendants could be imprisoned for failing to pay their court-appointed lawyers, while well-heeled defendants who had stiffed their hired counsel could not.87 The majority opinion pointed out that this issue hadnt been preserved for appeal,88 and opined in dicta that the state ban on imprisonment for debt was an issue for state courts to decide.89 Justice Douglas, concurring in the judgment, agreed, but noted the apparent inconsistency between [the relevant state constitutional provision] and the recoupment statute.90. As a result of the greater reliance on incarceration, says Karin Martin, a professor at John Jay College and an expert on criminal justice financial obligations, there was a dramatic increase in the number of statutes listing a prison term as a possible sentence for failure to repay criminal-justice debt3. ^ Recent Legislation, supra note 23, at 1314. ^ The Missouri legislation, for example, seems to constrain municipal collection of criminal justice debt within certain domains. Detail In England, debtors owing money could be easily detained by the courts for indefinite periods, being kept in debtor's prisons. Speaker . Meanwhile, with the advent of bankruptcy law, individuals were given a way out of insurmountable debt, and creditors were made to share some of the risk inherent in a loan transaction. But other carve-outs for crime130 arent so clean-cut, as their purpose likely had nothing to do with regulatory offenses. When (and why) did the courts revert to jailing debtors? at 135. II, 18 (There shall be no imprisonment for debt, except in cases of fraud.). Debtors' Prison Relief Act of 1792 was a United States federal statute enacted into law by the first President of the United States George Washington on May 5, 1792. To start, state debtor protections would not merely duplicate the federal ones. 1679, 1679 n.1 (1971). The report documents the realities of today's debtors' prisons, and provides state and local governments and courts with recommendations for pursuing sensible and fair approaches to collecting criminal justice debt. When did they get rid of debtors prisons? - Heimduo Debtors' prisons were supposed to have gone out with the 19th century, but there is evidence that they still exist today in the United States. at 46 (quoting Or. The first line of cases prohibits states from discriminating on the basis of indigence when contemplating imprisonment for nonpayment of criminal justice debt. ^ See Office of Judicial Servs., Supreme Court of Ohio, Collection of Fines and Court Costs in Adult Trial Courts (2015), http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/Publications/JCS/finesCourtCosts.pdf [http://perma.cc/43AE-V32F]; see also Taylor Gillan, Ohio Supreme Court Warns Judges to End Debtors Prisons, Jurist (Feb. 7, 2014, 7:14 AM), http://jurist.org/paperchase/2014/02/ohio-supreme-court-warns-judges-to-end-debtors-prisons.php [http://perma.cc/EA4L-BKHJ]. Const. (5 Gray) 530, 532 (1855); Eams v. Stevens, 26 N.H. 117, 120 (1852); Whitney v. Johnson, 12 Wend. Mo. The crusade to abolish debtors' prisons also garnered strong public support from Freeman Hunt and Hezekiah Niles, influential newspaper editors and ardent reformers. You can also contribute via. ^ While outside the scope of analysis here, Professor Beth Colgan has argued that incarceration for criminal justice debt might also violate the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment. at 15657 (discussing taxes). ^ Id. ^ Cf., e.g., Miss. ^ In addition to featuring in David Copperfield (1850) and Little Dorrit (1857), debtors prisons lurk in the shadows of Dickenss classic A Christmas Carol (1843). I, 18; Utah Const. Many judges, including J. Scott Vowell, a circuit court judge in Alabama, felt pressured to make their courts financially self-sufficient, by using the threat of jail time established in those statutes to squeeze cash out of small-time debtors. Const. This report details the findings of an almost year-long investigation into the ways Nebraskas criminal justice system handles fines and fees imposed on low-income Nebraskans. Id. 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. . This criminal debt "exception" to debtors' prisons is intimately linked to this country's complicated history regarding debtors and creditors. . art. Rev. at 6061. All Rights Reserved. November 6, 2017 By: Bobby Casey, Managing Director GWP Do an internet search on debtors' prisons, and the top searches will ^ This includes the state constitutional bans of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming.
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