Colorado Springs Will Re-Pay Those Sent to Debtor's Prison in Landmark Settlement [View all]
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The City of Colorado Springs, which has sentenced hundreds of poor people to debtors prison, has agreed to not only end the unconstitutional practice of converting court fines to jail time, but to also to pay back those who were wrongfully jailed.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado announced the settlement in a statement today.
"The City of Colorado Springs has agreed, as part of a $103,000 settlement with the ACLU of Colorado, to stop converting impoverished defendants’ fines into jail time, to stop sentencing defendants to jail for non-jailable offenses, and to compensate dozens of individuals whose court fines were illegally converted to jail time when they could not afford to pay," the ACLU said in its statement.
Imprisoning people because they are poor and cannot afford to pay court fines violates both federal and state laws against debtors prisons in Colorado.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/colorado-springs-pay-debtors-prison-landmark-settlement/story?id=38905750
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