Poverty may drive people to commit a criminal act, but a suspect's ability to pay a fine should not lead to jail time, said the U.S. Justice Department last March 13 to state and local councils which have drawn public attention recently because of their allegedly "abusive" legal fees.
Reuters reported that the U.S. Justice Department issued an open letter outlining constitutional principles that it then enjoined the courts to strictly honor and follow. The socio-economic status of suspects should not deny them the due process of law. The letter specifically mentioned that the following widespread practices should be disallowed: keeping an individual in jail simply because they cannot pay the legal fine; issuing bonds with high amounts that the defendants would find difficult to pay, and which will keep them in detention, again; and not granting them their legal rights because they could not produce the payment required by the case.
The Justice Department's civil rights division had identified these practices as discriminatory of an individual's constitutional rights. The marginalized, the unemployed and the underemployed, as well as others living well below the middle-income bracket are the first ones to have their rights violated.
The NBC News report adds that these practices can also damage significantly the entire justice system and call into doubt its integrity.
Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, asserts in the letter that "...to the extent that these practices are geared not toward addressing public safety, but rather toward raising revenue, they can cast doubt on the impartiality of the tribunal and erode trust between local governments and their constituents."
The TribLive says that complaints in Ferguson, Missouri last year had triggered the Justice Department's investigation into how local courts are issuing fines. A municipal court in the state had garnered notoriety for fining individuals huge fines that were not proportional to their cases; it also issued arrests for residents who had failed to make court appearances because of their financial inadequacy.
