(noting that the state court had failed to adequately determine, as required by Bearden, whether the defendant had "made sufficient bona fide efforts legally to acquire the resources to pay," but nonetheless denying habeas relief because the defendant's failure to pay was due not to indigency but his "willful refusal to pay").
The Ferguson court, however, has in the past routinely issued arrest warrants when a person is unable to make a required fine payment without any ability-to-pay determination. While the court does not sentence a defendant to jail in such a case, the result is often equivalent to what Bearden proscribes: the incarceration of a defendant solely because of an inability to pay a fine. In response to concerns about issuing warrants in such cases, Ferguson officials have told us that without issuing warrants and threatening incarceration, they have no ability to secure payment. But the Supreme Court rejected that argument, finding that states are "not powerless to enforce judgments against those financially unable to pay a fine," and noting that—especially in cases like those at issue here in which the court has already made a determination that penological interests do not demand incarceration—a court can "establish a reduced fine or alternate public service in lieu of a fine that adequately serves the state's goals of punishment and deterrence, given the defendant's diminished financial resources."[1] Id. As discussed above, however, Ferguson has not established any such alternative.[2]
Finally, in light of the significant portion of municipal charges that lead to an arrest warrant, as well as the substantial number of arrest warrants that lead to arrest and detention, we have considerable concerns regarding whether individuals facing charges in Ferguson municipal court are entitled to, and being unlawfully denied, the right to counsel.
- Ferguson's Bond Practices Impose Undue Hardship on Those Seeking to Secure Release from the Ferguson City Jail
Our investigation found substantial deficiencies in the way Ferguson police and court officials set, accept, refund, and forfeit bond payments. Recently, in response to concerns raised during our investigation, the City implemented several changes to its bond practices, most of which apply to those detained after a warrantless arrest.[3] These changes represent positive
- ↑ Ferguson officials have also told us that the arrest warrant is issued not because of the missed payment per se, but rather because the person missing the payment failed to abide by the court's rules. But the Supreme Court has rejected that contention, too. In Bearden, the Court noted that the sentencing court's stated concern "was that the petitioner had disobeyed a prior court order to pay the fine," but found that the sentence nonetheless "is no more than imprisoning a person solely because he lacks funds" to pay. Bearden, 461 U.S. at 674.
- ↑ Additionally, Ferguson's municipal code provides: "When a sentence for violation of any provision of this Code or other ordinance of the city… includes a fine and such fine is not paid, or if the cost's of prosecution adjudged against an offender are not paid, the person under sentence shall be imprisoned one day for every ten dollars ($10.00) of any such unpaid fine or costs… not to exceed a total of four (4) months." Ferguson Mun. Code § 1-16. Our investigation did not uncover any evidence that the court has sentenced anyone to imprisonment pursuant to this statute in the past several years. Nonetheless, it is concerning that this statute, which unconstitutionally sanctions imprisonment for failing to pay a fine, remains in effect. Cf. Bearden v. Georgia, 461 U.S. 660, 671 (1983).
- ↑ In December 2014, the court set forth a bond schedule for warrantless arrests, which provides that, for all but 14 code violations, a person arrested pursuant to a municipal code violation and brought to Ferguson City Jail shall be issued a citation or summons and released on his or her own recognizance without any bond payment required. For those 14 code violations requiring a bond, the court has set "fixed" bond amounts, although these are subject to the court's discretion to raise or lower those amounts at the request of the City or the detained individual. The court's
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