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Modern-Day Debtors’ Prisons in Washington
from the ACLU of WA
Poor people increasingly are being jailed for failing to pay legal debts they can never hope to afford.
This treatment creates new hardships for people seeking to re-enter society and wastes resources in an often fruitless effort to extract payments from defendants who may be homeless, unemployed, or simply too poor to pay. A new report from the ACLU looks at “debtors’ prisons” and their devastating impact on individuals in Washington State—one of five states highlighted in the report.
“It’s like something out of Dickens—impoverished people being locked up because they can’t pay off all their debts. And like something by Kafka—the government spending more money keeping someone behind bars than what it will collect for debt itself,” said Doug Honig, Communications Director for the ACLU of Washington.
In Washington, there are no fewer than 28 separate fines and fees (LFOs) that a judge may impose on a criminal defendant, depending on the offense and sentence. Twelve percent interest accrues on all unpaid legal debts from the date of sentencing. It is not surprising that the many people who are indigent at the time of sentencing quickly are overwhelmed by the debt.
cartoon by John Jonik
In a recent case discussed in the ACLU report, a Spokane man ended up spending 300 days in jail for failing to pay legal debts imposed in his criminal case—even though his original sentence was only 30 days in jail. The man had explained to the court that he had no way to pay because he was unemployed and homeless.
The ACLU report explains the devastating effects these debts have had on the lives of four Washington residents. It profiles “Lisa,” whose legal debts have grown to over $60,000 due to the state’s interest penalty on unpaid legal system debts. Though she has not reoffended in nine years, she was arrested and incarcerated four times because of unpaid LFOs. Twice she was jailed without being provided an attorney. And on one occasion she was locked up even though she told the judge that the lights in her apartment recently had been shut off because she didn’t have the money to pay her electricity bill.
Further, the ACLU report shows how imprisoning people who are unable to pay fines and court fees is counter-productive. Individuals struggling to re-enter society see their incomes reduced, their credit ratings worsen, their prospects for finding employment and housing diminish, and their chances of ending back in jail or prison increase.
Locking up indigent defendants for failing to pay their legal debts often ends up costing states and counties much more than they the government will recover. For example, a 38-year-old man in Washington state who has struggled with drug addiction and mental health problems since he was a teenager was jailed for two weeks in a county jail after missing $60 in monthly payments—at a cost to the county of more than $1,700.
In a study by the Brennan Center, eight of 15 states suspend driving privileges for missed legal debt payments, a practice that can make it impossible for people to work. And in all 15 states, criminal justice debt and associated collection practices can damage credit and interfere with other commitments, such as child support obligations.
The ACLU-WA supports passage of legislation that would move Washington State toward a more rational approach than "debtors’ prisons.” Legislation is needed not only to reduce the interest accruing on legal debts during periods of incarceration but also to limit incarceration for failure to pay when the defendant lacks the current ability to pay. Doing so would save counties the costs of jailing poor people, when there is no evidence that the jail time improves the person’s ability to pay and—more likely—makes it worse.
The ACLU and Brennan Center reports are available online at www.aclu-wa.org.
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