The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado accused three Front Range cities this morning of jailing people for failing to pay court-ordered fines that they are too poor to pay. Relying on state and federal court decisions, the ACLU sent letters to the cities demanding a prompt halt to the practice.
The ACLU conducted an in-depth investigation into the municipal courts of Westminster, Wheat Ridge, and Northglenn, which routinely issue “pay or serve” warrants without any consideration for or inquiry into a debtor’s ability to pay.
“Pay- or-serve” warrants authorize a debtor’s arrest. Once in custody, the debtor must either pay the full amount of the fine or “pay down” the fine by serving time in jail at a daily rate set by the court. Wheat Ridge and Northglenn set the rate at $50 per day, while Westminster converts all unpaid fines into ten-day sentences. None of the three cities has a process to determine whether the debtor has the ability to pay, as federal and state law require.
“These ‘pay-or-serve’ warrants return Colorado to the days of debtors’ prisons, which were abolished long ago,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. “Jailing poor people for fines they cannot pay violates the Constitution and punishes poor people just for being poor. It also wastes taxpayer resources, crowds the jails, and doesn’t get the fines paid.”
The Jefferson County Jail imprisoned at least 154 people on pay-or-serve warrants during a five-month period from February to June of this year. During that time period, 973 days were served at a cost to taxpayers of more than $70 per day, for a total cost of more than $70,000. These 973 fine days cancelled out $40,000 of fines, making the total loss to the taxpayer $110,000.
“Jailing the poor for failure to pay a fine is not only unconstitutional, but also fundamentally unfair,” says ACLU of Colorado Staff Attorney Rebecca T. Wallace. “This practice creates a two-tiered system of justice in which those who can afford to pay their legal debts avoid jail and can move on with their lives, and those unable to pay end up imprisoned.”
Examples from the ACLU letters include Jared Thornburg, who was sentenced by the Westminster Municipal Court to ten days in jail when he could not pay a $165 fine for driving a defective vehicle, a non-jailable offense. The Northglenn Municipal Court sentenced a homeless man to four days in jail when he was unable to pay a $190 fine for possession of a marijuana pipe. Linda Roberts, a homeless and disabled woman, was sentenced to fifteen days by the Wheat Ridge Municipal Court when she could not pay $671 in fines and court costs. In each case, no inquiry was made into the debtor’s ability to pay.
The municipal court practices criticized in the ACLU’s letters are emblematic of a wider problem, Silverstein said. According to the ACLU, municipal courts in the majority of Colorado’s largest cities order the arrest of persons who miss payments on court-ordered fines, with most of them specifying jail time in proportion to the size of the unpaid debt.
The City of Denver is an exception. Denver stopped issuing warrants for failure to pay money at the beginning of 2012, citing the high costs associated with jailing debtors and the lost revenue of forfeiting fines. After abandoning the practice, Denver increased the amount of fines and fees it collected in the following year, without the added cost of holding people in jail for failure to pay.
The ACLU has requested a written response from the three cities by January 10, 2014.
Visit the case page, which includes links to the ACLU letters.

On Saturday, Feburary 9th, over 100 ACLU of Colorado members came together for our annual membership meeting. Louise Melling, Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU and the Director of its Center for Liberty, spoke about increasing attempts to use religion to discriminate and how best to respond to such attempts, eliciting several thought-provoking questions from attendees.

In addition, at the meeting we recognized the valuable work of two outsanding Colorado civil liberties leaders: 2012 Volunteer of the Year Award recipient John P. Scott and 2012 Civil Rights in Action Youth Award recipient AJUA (Asociación de Jóvenes Unidos en Acción: Association of Youth United in Action).

Read about John's tireless work on behalf of civil liberties. 

Read about AJUA's impressive work on behalf of undocumented students in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Thanks to all who were able to join us, and a big thank you to our event sponsors Heizer Paul Grueskin LLP!

Operations Manager Caryn Osterman with Volunteer of the Year Award recipient John P. Scott. 

Brendan Greene of CIRC and Staff Attorney Rebecca T. Wallace with AJUA representatives.

Deputy Director Stephen Meswarb, former ACLU-CO Executive Director Dorothy Davidson, ACLU National Deputy Director Louise Melling, and Legal Director Mark Silverstein

Alex Alvarado of AJUA with Dick Hershcopf, sponsor of the Richard Hershcopf Grant presented to AJUA in recognition of their ongoing work.

The Hershcopf family, generous sponsors of the Richard Hershcopf Grant.

Executive Director Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, Board Member Gwen Young, and Staff Attorney Rebecca T. Wallace.

Board Member and Boulder Chapter Chair Judd Golden and Board Member Gwen Young with an ACLU supporter.

GRAND JUNCTION – The Colorado ACLU announced today a settlement agreement with the Colorado State Patrol that will resolve a federal court lawsuit filed on behalf of the family of Jason Alan Kemp, who was shot and killed at his Grand Junction home in 2010 when he refused to allow state troopers into his home without a warrant.

To settle the lawsuit, the State Patrol will pay over $1 million to Jason’s family and will also implement new training modules for all current and future officers to include specific instruction on the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment and its limited exceptions. The new training will also emphasize de-escalation tactics and the limits on officers’ permissible use of force. The agreement provides for ACLU lawyers to review the new training curriculum and to attend and monitor training sessions.

“ACLU lawyers were prepared to prove not only that state troopers violated the Constitution when they unjustifiably kicked in Jason Kemp’s front door and shot and killed him, but also that supervisors all the way up the chain of command were responsible for recklessly deficient training that was the ultimate cause of this needless and preventable death,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. “To its credit, the State Patrol has now agreed to major policy and training reforms—which ACLU will monitor–aimed at ensuring that all state troopers are thoroughly instructed on the limits of their constitutional authority. It is our hope that these reforms will prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.”

According to the lawsuit, troopers Kirk Firko and Ivan Lawyer were investigating a minor accident that resulted, at most, in minimal damage to a neighbor’s lawn. They suspected Jason Kemp was responsible and that he may have been driving under the influence of alcohol. When they knocked at his door, Kemp told the troopers to get a warrant. Instead of seeking a warrant, the troopers proceeded to break down Kemp’s front door, with guns drawn. When the door gave way, trooper Lawyer fired his weapon, killing the unarmed Kemp at the scene.

“Jason was killed because he did what every American has the right to do,” Silverstein said. “He insisted that police comply with the Fourth Amendment and obtain a warrant before entering a person’s home.”

In some cases, courts allow law enforcement to enter a home without a warrant if so-called “exigent circumstances” are present. In the settlement agreement, the State Patrol affirmed—and agreed to instruct all state patrol officers—that the risk that blood alcohol evidence might dissipate “does not constitute exigent circumstances sufficient to allow warrantless entry.” Similarly, state patrol officers also will be taught that a suspected DUI that results in no personal injury does not justify warrantless entry into a home.

According to the ACLU, discovery as the suit proceeded revealed systemic problems within the Colorado State Patrol. “The more we learned about the circumstances surrounding Jason’s death, the more it became clear that the poor decision-making by state troopers on the scene that resulted in Jason’s death reflected deep institutional failures in trooper supervision and training,” said Rebecca Wallace, ACLU Staff Attorney. “We uncovered compelling evidence that high-ranking supervisors had fostered a culture that encouraged the use of overly aggressive law enforcement tactics, even when those tactics posed a very real risk to public safety.”

The settlement agreement provides for comprehensive training on the Fourth Amendment at the Academy level, as well as on-the-job training related to investigations that lead troopers to homes, with a specific focus on DUI investigations in the home. This training is to be reviewed and monitored by the ACLU.

In 2011, a Mesa County grand jury indicted Firko and Lawyer for their actions in connection with Jason’s death, but the criminal charges were ultimately dismissed. “The result of the criminal cases meant that the ACLU’s civil action was the family’s only path to justice for Jason Kemp,” said Paul Karlsgodt, the ACLU Cooperating Attorney who led the litigation team. “And only through settlement was it possible to achieve these major changes in training and policy. The Colorado State Patrol is to be commended for coming to the negotiating table with a willingness to make significant changes aimed at preventing this kind of tragedy in the future.”

Statements of the parents of Jason Alan Kemp:

Connie Kemp, mother of Jason Alan Kemp
Ms. Kemp says, “I want to thank Baker Hostetler for working pro bono in cooperation with the Colorado ACLU to protect the public and provide hope for all the families affected by injustice against them. We are gratified that the legal costs incurred by this long, arduous fight have been donated to the ACLU. I want to say thank you to the ACLU on behalf of my son Jason and encourage the public to continue to support the Colorado ACLU. They collectively empower every citizen of Colorado.”

Keith Kemp, father of Jason Alan Kemp
Mr. Kemp says, “Many of our constitutional rights are in place to protect us from the government. The Colorado State Patrol are to protect and serve. Instead they violated the constitution and in the process ended Jason’s life. Jason died asserting his constitutional rights. Because the criminal charges filed against the state troopers were dismissed, this lawsuit was the only way to shine light on the injustice Jason suffered. The ACLU was instrumental in having the state of Colorado and the CSP change their way of doing business. With the ACLU’s vigilance, I hope no more lives will be lost.”

More on this case