ACLU accuses Colorado Springs of running ‘debtors’ prison’
The American Civil Liberties Union believes the Colorado Springs Municipal Court is violating federal and state law by regularly jailing people who owe fines for nonjailable offenses.
Justin Grimalso said his girlfriend is currently in jail for that reason.
“She was sleeping in front of a church downtown and the cops gave her a trespassing charge,” he said. “She missed a court date. Now she’s in the county jail because she missed a court date.”
Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado, held a news conference Thursday morning at the downtown Penrose Library to discuss the matter.
“What I’m talking about is sentencing practices that not only violate (the) law but really harken back to the days of debtors’ prisons, which were abolished long ago in this country,” he said.
Silverstein said an ACLU investigation found the city has sent more than 800 homeless and poor people to jail since 2014 under an unconstitutional “pay or serve” system in which they had no choice but to go to jail if they couldn’t pay fines of up to $500.
The defendants spent days, weeks and even months in jail, he said, trading their freedom for a daily credit of $50 toward unpaid court fines.
Silverstein said 75 percent of the jail sentences were for offenses that are not punishable by jail time under city code, such as panhandling or violating park curfew.
The ACLU is asking the city to stop the practice and create a fund to compensate defendants who were wrongly sentenced to jail for unpaid fines.
Silverstein said he wants the city to respond by Nov. 5 and is encouraged by the city’s initial reaction to the situation.
“The city attorney said she is reviewing pending prosecutions and has already dismissed some cases,” he said. “The process will take some time.”
Silverstein said he also wants the city to change aspects of its code that gives judges authority to levy jail sentences in such cases, and that allows city officials to ignore their limits of authority when dealing with poor and homeless people.
In a statement released Thursday afternoon, the city said the court and the city attorney will work together to present an official response to the ACLU.
Silverstein is already involved in opposing a proposed “sit-lie” ordinance that he said singles out homeless people to keep them out of the downtown area.
“Stop threatening us with jail,” Larry Espinoza, a homeless man, said. “Help us to help ourselves.”
