Report: Texas courts jailing poor who can’t pay fines

Many municipal courts in Texas unfairly jail poor defendants who can’t pay fines related to traffic tickets and fail to consider their ability to pay such fines or consider alternatives such as community service to resolve their cases, according to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The report comes as the ACLU of Texas filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the southeast Texas city of Santa Fe, accusing it of running a modern-day debtors’ prison and “prioritizing raising revenue for the city over administering justice fairly.”

Officials with the Texas Judicial Council and the Texas Municipal Courts Association said they’re aware of problems associated with poor defendants not being able to pay fines and court costs and are hoping to work with lawmakers during next year’s legislative session to tackle some of these issues.

Of 766 municipal courts in Texas the ACLU reviewed that individually settled or resolved at least 100 cases in the past year, the median rate at which these courts allowed people to perform community service was 0.2 percent. The report also said more than half of the municipal courts declined to waive any amount of fines and fees associated with these cases for people living in poverty.

“Most or nearly all courts across the state are jailing people without doing a serious inquiry into the ability to pay (fines), as required by law,” said Trisha Trigilio, an ACLU staff attorney

The report also found that during a four-month period in 2015 and 2016, 48.9 percent of the people the Houston municipal court system jailed were black; the city’s black population is about 24 percent. In nearby Texas City, the study found that during an unspecified six-month period, 60 percent of the people its municipal court system jailed were black. In Texas City, blacks make up about one-third of its population.

Trigilio said while the study found no evidence of explicit racial bias in the municipal court systems in Houston and Texas City, the disproportionate numbers of blacks jailed was indicative of what the organization believes is racial disparity within the criminal justice system.

Trigilio said it is unclear how many people across Texas are jailed for not being able to pay fines and court costs because courts are not required to keep such statistics.

In its lawsuit against Santa Fe, which is about 35 miles southeast of Houston, the ACLU alleges the city authorizes its police officers to go out and arrest anyone who misses a payment and put them in jail until the officers decide they have stayed there long enough to pay off their fines.

“That is a pretty egregious practice,” Trigilio said.

Santa Fe City Manager Joe Dickson declined to comment Friday.

The lawsuit is similar to others that have been filed across the country by the ACLU and other groups that allege this is part of a nationwide problem, brought to the forefront in 2014 after the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri.

“I have evolved in terms of looking at the issue. But I’ve always had a sense that as a municipal court judge, these are fine-only cases and jail is the worst punishment of all and the least effective punishment,” said Edward Spillane, the presiding judge of the municipal courts in College Station and the past president of the Texas Municipal Courts Association.

The Texas Judicial Council last month approved a resolution with 16 recommendations it plans to make to the Legislature. Some recommendations include clarifying that judges are required to assess a defendant’s ability to pay fines and court costs prior to the assessment of such fees and repealing or amending any additional fees imposed on individuals due to their inability to pay fines and court costs.

“We’re hopeful the Legislature … will look at this issue and take action,” said David Slayton, administrative director of the Office of Court Administration, which works with the judicial council.