Mississippi Archives - Fines and Fees Justice Center

Why We Need to Stop Suspending and Revoking Driver’s Licenses Due to Debt

The Prosperity Now Scorecard rates states on their progress toward racial economic justice in several policy areas. The 2022 policy update includes an assessment of which states have ended the …

Debtors Prisons: In Mississippi, Judges Can Lock You Up For Owing Money

In Mississippi, judges lock up people while they work to earn money to pay off court fees, fines, and restitution, without an end date. People spend an average of four …

Examining the Intersection Between Criminal Justice and Financial Services in the Deep South

The text discusses the financial burdens and barriers to financial stability faced by people after they are released from prison.

Think Debtors Prisons Are a Thing of the Past? Not in Mississippi.

The authors of this feature report detail the lived experiences of poor people sentenced to Mississippi’s restitution centers while they work to earn money to pay off court-ordered debts.

Mississippi HB 1352: The Criminal Justice Reform Act [Ends driver’s license suspension for unpaid fines and fees, failure to appear]

The bill provides that when a person fails to pay their fines and fees (whether for traffic, misdemeanor, or felony offenses), a clerk will provide written notice advising that failure to pay within the following 90 days will result in the court pursuing collection of the debt. Before this law was passed, courts suspended driver’s licenses for nonpayment.

Mississippi HB 387: An Act to Provide that Incarceration Shall Not Automatically Follow the Nonpayment of a Fine, Restitution, or Court Costs […]

This bill was proposed to enshrine Rule 26.6(b) of the Mississippi Rules of Criminal Procedure in state law. Its provisions are nearly identical: it mandates a determination of willfulness before a court may sanction a defendant for nonpayment of fines and fees, and provides alternatives for courts when failure to pay was not willful.

Mississippi Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rules 26.6 and 27.3: Fine, Restitution, and/or Court Costs following Adjudication of Guilt.

Following litigation by the ACLU, the MacArthur Justice Center, and the Southern Poverty Law Center challenging debtor’s prisons in Biloxi, Jackson, and Corinth, the Mississippi Supreme Court made two changes related to fines and fees in its Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Mississippi Department of Public Safety declines to enforce statute that permits driver’s license suspension for failure to pay fines and fees

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety made a number of discretionary changes regarding driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees -- they stopped suspending licenses for nonpayment, restored licenses, and waived the $100 reinstatement fee for those drivers.

Biloxi Municipal Court Procedures for Legal Financial Obligations & Community Service

This bench card was created as part of a 2016 settlement agreement in Kennedy v. Biloxi, an ACLU lawsuit against the city of Biloxi, Mississippi, where defendants could avoid incarceration only if they paid their fines and fees immediately, in full, with cash.

Kennedy v. City of Biloxi et al

This case alleged that the City of Biloxi operated a debtor’s prison, routinely jailing indigent people who could not afford to pay fines and fees imposed in traffic and misdemeanor cases.