Gulfport, Mississippi – Today,
the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and the
Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) filed a lawsuit against the City
of Gulfport, Mississippi, charging that the judges of the Gulfport Municipal Court are routinely
incarcerating poor people who are unable to pay their fines and
violating their right to counsel. As a result of these practices, the
Harrison County Jail has become a modern day debtors’ prison.
In an effort to crack down on
people who allegedly owe the city “old fines,” the City of Gulfport
sends a “collection” task force to routinely sweep through predominately
African-American neighborhoods to find people with outstanding court
fines. LDF and SCHR attorneys spent several months in Gulfport courtrooms
observing hearings for old fines and other misdemeanor charges. Indigent
defendants in the Gulfport Municipal Court are not provided with counsel.
Defendants unable to pay the full amount owed or a significant portion
of the fine were sentenced to “sit off” the fines in the Harrison County
Jail, at the rate of one day for every $25 owed.
Over three decades ago, the
United States Supreme Court held that criminal defendants could not be
incarcerated for failure to pay old fines, unless there is a deliberate
unwillingness to pay, and upheld the right to counsel for
misdemeanants.
“We are very concerned that poor
people with old fines for minor violations of the law, such as riding a
bicycle without a light, are being jailed for their inability to pay,
and worse yet they are not being provided with a lawyer before
sentencing, in clear violation of the Constitution,” said LDF Assistant
Counsel Miriam Gohara.
These practices have
cost the citizens of Harrison County countless thousands of dollars in
taxes to house these non-violent, impoverished debtors at the county
jail. Additionally, the actions of the court have harmed many people
who are often economically unable to provide for themselves and their
families.
"Plaintiff Hubert Lindsey is so poor that he lives in a tent. He is
partially blind and physically disabled. He has no money. Yet, after a
15 second hearing with no lawyer present, he was sentenced to six months
in jail. This is disgraceful, yet typical of the Gulfport Municipal
Court,”
said SCHR staff attorney Sarah Geraghty.
Attorneys representing the
Plaintiffs are seeking an injunction ordering the Gulfport officials to
stop incarcerating people who are too poor to pay their fines. Further, attorneys are seeking to have the
City provide counsel to all accused indigent misdemeanants in the Gulfport
Municipal Court who face potential loss of liberty, and to provide
misdemeanants and accused misdemeanants reasonable access to their court
files.
For a copy of this
complaint, click here.
To view articles and
reports on indigent defense from the Center, click here.