COLUMBIA, S.C. — Lexington County, South Carolina, has reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought by several people who had been jailed in the county for a failure to pay court fines and fees, who compared their situation to a modern-day “debtor’s prison.”
Lexington County Council voted Tuesday to approve a settlement with the plaintiffs who sued in 2017 after they had been locked up at the county detention center over a variety of unpaid court costs.
Council members did not disclose the terms of the settlement in a public vote Tuesday, but details were spelled out in a federal court filing on Thursday.
The county agrees that the three attorneys assigned to the Lexington County magistrate court system will have starting salaries raised to $60,000 and that three other attorney positions will be created for magistrate’s court, along with a paralegal, investigator, social worker and administrative assistant.
“We don’t know if six (attorneys) is going to be enough or not, but we know it is a massive improvement on what’s been available so far,” said Allen Chaney, the legal director of the ACLU of South Carolina. He added that filling out the other positions will also improve people’s interactions with the magistrate court system.
The federal lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of five Midlands residents who served 20 to 63 days in the county jail in 2016 and 2017 because they were unable to pay amounts ranging from $680 to $2,163, according to the lawsuit. Four of them lost jobs while incarcerated, making it that much more difficult for them to pay the amounts owed to the county courts.
Those fines and fees were imposed for offenses such as driving with a suspended license, operating a vehicle without insurance and a minor assault.
“It is truly terrifying to face the Magistrate Court system without having an attorney who can explain the law and make sure your rights are protected,” said Sasha Darby, a plaintiff in the case, in a statement put out by the ACLU. “The changes in this settlement are a long time coming, and I am so happy that this means more people will have meaningful access to counsel.”
In its statement about the settlement, the ACLU pointed out that as recently as 2013, Lexington County had no public defender assigned to represent criminal defendants in magistrate’s court, potentially denying residents their constitutionally guaranteed right to legal representation. The organization said criminal justice advocates have long pointed to the state’s magistrate and municipal courts as “sites of rampant constitutional violations.”
“The United States Supreme Court ruled decades ago that the government must provide a public defender to any person who faces the possibility of jail for a criminal charge or unpaid court debt,” said attorney Toby Marshall, who worked with the ACLU on the case. “This settlement puts an infrastructure in place for Lexington County to finally meet that obligation.”
The county defended the court practices at the time, calling the cases highlighted by the plaintiffs the result of “valid judicial orders.” Lexington County declined to comment on the settlement through a spokesperson, noting it had not yet been approved by the federal court.
In addition to Lexington County, officials named in the lawsuit were Chief Magistrate Gary Reinhart, Associate Chief Magistrate Rebecca Adams, Public Defender Rob Madsen and Sheriff Jay Koon.
The ACLU accused the defendants of creating “persistent, widespread and routine arrest and incarceration” for low-income people dealing with traffic tickets and misdemeanor offenses. Defendants sometimes spend weeks behind bars without being told a challenge to their jailing is possible and legal assistance may be available to do so, the lawsuit said.
County magistrates also failed to adequately discuss arrangements to pay what’s owed in installments and to extend deadlines when merited instead of sending people to jail, according to the suit.
The settlement only resolves claims against Lexington County. The public defenders’ office for the 11th Judicial Circuit was later released from the suit, said Chaney. The claims against the sheriff and magistrate judges were summarily dismissed by federal Judge Sherri Lydon earlier this year, although Chaney said the claims against the magistrates will be appealed.
