Under a settlement with the SPLC, the city court in Bogalusa, Louisiana, will stop jailing indigent defendants for failing to pay court debt – one of several reforms designed to ensure fairness for all people appearing before the court.
People awaiting trial before a criminal court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were coerced into paying hundreds of dollars to a company before they were released from jail – even after they had paid their bail. The SPLC filed a federal lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of...
The following statement in support of the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act of 2017 introduced this week by U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris and Rand Paul, is by Sam Brooke, deputy legal director for the SPLC:
The following statement, about the failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is by Sam Brooke, deputy legal director for the SPLC:
We’re deeply disappointed by the U.S. Senate’s heartless proposal to eviscerate Medicaid and roll back many of the protections made available under the Affordable Care Act. Millions of Americans would be stripped of their access to affordable health care.
Two New Orleans bail bond companies working with two other businesses charged clients hidden and illegal fees – even sending armed bounty hunters to kidnap clients and extort money from their friends and family. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit to stop the practice.
The...
Two New Orleans bail bond companies working with two other businesses charged clients hidden and illegal fees – even sending armed bounty hunters to kidnap clients and extort money from their friends and family, according to a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Louisiana’s Bogalusa City Court has agreed to issue $50 refunds to settle part of a federal lawsuit that describes how the court and a city judge operated a modern-day debtors’ prison by illegally jailing indigent people too poor to pay fines and court costs, the Southern Poverty Law Center announced today.
The SPLC and others are seeking to reform a wasteful money bail system that discriminates against the poor. But earlier efforts fell victim to tough-on-crime policies that emerged in the mid-1960s.
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on a bill that would stop the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) years-long effort to rein in predatory lenders who profit by trapping the poor in an endless cycle of debt.
