Alabama Gulf Coast Town Repeals Ordinance Criminalizing the Poor After SPLC Action
Another great job by the SPLC. If you haven’t donated to them you might want to consider doing so—they help a lot of people who might otherwise might not receive assistance and they keep tabs on lots of bad people. I can only imagine what kind of security precautions they have to take.
A city ordinance that criminalized the failure to pay a water bill was repealed by the city council in the town of Chickasaw, Alabama, last night in response to a Southern Poverty Law Center letter advising the city’s municipal judge that the ordinance is unconstitutional.
Update: On September 14, 2016, Chickasaw Municipal Judge Jay Ross signed a standing order providing that any pending charges, warrants, fines, fees or court costs related to Ordinance 1504 would be dismissed or remitted.
Chickasaw resident Sonya Ayers, 48, was convicted of a misdemeanor and ultimately jailed last year for more than a day after she was unable to pay her city utility bill.
Her water was turned off and she was ordered by the municipal court to pay more than $400 in fines and fees to the city. She also had to pay monthly supervision fees to Judicial Correction Services, a private, for-profit probation company. Ayers could not keep up with the payments and was arrested after failing to appear at a court hearing that she was not informed about. […]
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