State senator to introduce legislation to address ‘debtors prisons’
State Sen. Guy Reschenthaler said Friday that he plans to introduce legislation as early as next week in response to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s reporting on the systemic practice of jailing people for being too poor to pay court costs and fines.
Mr. Reschenthaler, a Republican who represents parts of Allegheny and Washington counties, said his bill will allow magisterial district judges to require community service in lieu of fines for traffic violations.
The inability to offer community service in traffic cases was one of the biggest issues raised by district judges who were questioned about the practice of jailing people for failure to post collateral in cases in which the defendant is too poor to pay outstanding fines and court costs.
“One of the biggest problems is that we can’t give community
service for traffic violations,” District Judge Richard King, president of the Allegheny County Special Court Judges Association, said Thursday.
Mr. Reschenthaler, a former district judge himself, said, “Judges should have as many tools in the toolkit as possible, and one of those tools should be community service.”
“I didn’t realize just how systemic it was until I read that article,” Mr. Reschenthaler said. “In my court, we always used other options.”
Using data from the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts, the Post-Gazette found hundreds of cases throughout 2016 in which district judges appeared to have jailed someone after finding the person unable to pay, and many more in which the facts given proving ability to pay appeared entirely unrelated to the question.
“It’s unconstitutional to send anybody to jail because they cannot pay a fine. No one should go to jail because they’re poor,” Mr. Reschenthaler underscored.
He had not yet broached the issue with other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he sits on, but said that as one of the two members of the Senate who is a former member of the judiciary, “I think I will have strong support.”
Mr. Reschenthaler also has a bill to standardize the procedures of the constabulary, which he believes is part of the problem.
“The constables are going to get paid for a warrant served, regardless of what it’s for, and a lot of the time failure-topay people are easy to serve. They’re nonviolent, and the constable often knows where they are.”
In broader terms, he critiqued the practice of using the judiciary for revenue generation. “If we need a ticket of $400 to force compliance with traffic laws, so be it, but when you have a citation that’s $25 and the defendant is paying $400, that’s a problem.”
District Judge King gave an example of a disorderly conduct violation, in which the defendant is automatically charged $162 just in costs and fees, before a district judge even lays down a fine.
District Judge King had previously said there are pressures on district judges to collect fines because of state audits, which are released to the public.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale’s agency performs the audits roughly every three years.
“I think in certain circumstances, having community service as an option is a good option, but I can’t just create that, that has to come from the Legislature,” Mr. DePasquale said.
Mr. Reschenthaler said he would share further details regarding his bill as they are solidified. His chief of staff, Aaron Bonnaure, said in an email that they have two pieces in mind, one to allow community service for traffic violations and the other to promote uniformity in ability-topay determinations.