Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is discouraging state court systems from jailing criminal defendants who fail to pay fines or fees.
A letter being sent Monday to state court administrators warns that judges must consider alternatives to jail for poor defendants who don’t pay their fines. And it says defendants shouldn’t be locked up without the court first determining that the failure to pay was willful.
The guidance is aimed at curbing practices that the Justice Department says run afoul of the Constitution. They came under scrutiny in a scathing federal report on the Ferguson police department and municipal court system. That report found that the city routinely issued arrest warrants for failures to pay fines.
The letter comes from Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
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