Arkansas city sued over hot check court fines, arrests
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A central Arkansas city is effectively operating a debtors’ prison that imposes hefty fines and jail time for thousands of poor people whose checks bounce and infringes on their constitutional rights by shielding court proceedings from public scrutiny, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The lawsuit accuses the city of Sherwood and Pulaski County of violating the constitutional rights of thousands of residents through the prosecution of hot check cases. The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed the lawsuit on behalf of four people who were jailed because they couldn’t pay fines related to bounced checks and a Sherwood resident who is challenging the practice as a misuse of taxpayer funds.
The groups say the practice is part of a nationwide problem of poor defendants being jailed for not paying fines and fees they could never afford, an issue that was highlighted in Ferguson, Missouri after the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man in 2014.
“Through a labyrinthine — and lucrative — system, a single check for $15 returned for insufficient funds can be leveraged into many thousands of dollars in court costs, fines and fees owed to Sherwood and Pulaski County,” the groups said in the lawsuit.