WATERLOO, Iowa — The Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office is facing legal action for how it collects payments from inmates, an action the ACLU and its defendant claim doesn't follow the law and makes a "disruptive period of incarceration even more damaging".
The ACLU of Iowa, Fredrikson & Byron, PA and Frerichs Law Office filed the lawsuit against Black Hawk County Jail and county sheriff Tony Thompson on behalf of Leticia Roberts and others who have been arrested and charged for their time in the Black Hawk County Jail.
The lawsuit alleges Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson and his subordinates require people to sign a "confession of judgment" document before being released from jail, ultimately making them responsible for any fees associated with their stay.
The document requires the person pay $70 per day in "room and board" fees as well as $25 for administrative fees. These fees align with Iowa Code 356.7, which allows Iowa county sheriffs to charge "a prisoner who is eighteen years of age or older and who has been convicted of a criminal offense" for costs related to their arrest.
"The sheriff’s department has imposed a high cost that should never be charged in the first place,” said Charles Moore, staff attorney for Public Justice’s Debtors’ Prison Project. “And the sheriff’s program has been incredibly profitable, pocketing roughly $300,000 a year by collecting these fees."
The Black Hawk Sheriff's Office claims the "confession of judgment" is signed only when inmates have been released and are aware of their balance with the county, per a 2020 law change making sheriff's offices' inmate payments a civil action filed with the clerk of court.
But the ACLU alleges Black Hawk County doesn't follow that timeline. Instead, they make inmates sign before they are released and bypass the legal process of allowing released inmates to appear in court and argue their case.
"The sheriff is getting people to sign away money they don’t have and give up rights they shouldn’t give up by asking them to do so when they have completed their sentence but before they are released from jail, when they are not yet free," said Rita Bettis Austen, ACLU of Iowa legal director. "In those circumstances, they have no bargaining power, no attorney, and zero meaningful understanding of what they are doing and what they are giving up."
The plaintiff, Leticia Roberts, is a single mother of three who signed the payment documents because she thought she didn't have a choice. Roberts is still paying it off two years later, with a $730 bill hanging overhead and fixed income as her only source of money.
"I take full accountability for the mistakes I have made along the way in life. And also why I am working on being the best version of myself as a mother and God-fearing woman to make my and my three amazing children’s lives better. However, that does not give the sheriff’s office an excuse to wrongly take money from me or anyone else," Roberts said in an ACLU statement.
Another issue raised in the lawsuit is where the funds go: According to the lawsuit, building a gun range for police use, sometimes "outfitted with cotton candy and ice cream".
In response to the lawsuit, Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson said the funds go to promotional days and community engagement activities for "dispelling myths about the office, ensuring better education of the public, and better informing their families of how to maintain their own safety."
Read the sheriff's office's full statement below:
Unlike the release today from the state ACLU, Sheriff Tony Thompson will gladly, openly and transparently release information on how confessions of judgements are used for monies owed to taxpayers for reimbursement for serving sentences in the Black Hawk County Jail, and why minimal amounts of Black Hawk County room and board revenue is used for “recreational purposes” within his agency.
In full accordance with the provisions of Iowa Code 356.7, Sheriff Thompson has determined that $70.00 per day to reimburse for room, board, electricity, sewer, water and other ancillary fees associated with an inmate keeping once sentenced to serve time is appropriate. Upon the advice of counsel, and pursuant to a change to the law in 2020, the State of Iowa amended the manner in which county sheriff’s offices enforce inmate payment of administrative costs for room and board. Such charges could no longer be assessed in the inmate’s underlying criminal cases. Rather, a county sheriff is now required to file a claim with the clerk of court. This claim must be filed as a civil action. When inmates are released from the Black Hawk County Jail, they receive a statement as to what is owed and are given the option of signing a confession of judgment and, if desired, entering into a payment plan for all or a portion of outstanding administrative costs and room and board. Inmates are not required to sign confessions of judgement, to enter into payment plans, or to agree to the amount owed for administrative costs or room and board fees.
Further, as to the sheriff’s discretion (in accordance with Iowa Code 356.7) on how some of the nominal expenditures of these collections were spent, through promoting days where officers can spend time with their families and the community, dispelling myths about the office, ensuring better education of the public, and better informing their families of how to maintain their own safety, we find these days to be fulfilling, rewarding, and important to the total wellness and investment in a more inclusive, forthright and selflessly serving staff.
By including the public in some of these days, we also transparently demonstrate to our communities the tools and resources that we provide to them, we create dialogue and relationships and build commonality amongst neighbors and foundationally establish reliability in our agency without stigma, and without any drama. These are all force multipliers for our organization.
“It seems ironic that the ACLU would call this practice into question when these are the very actions and the law enforcement model that they have been demanding since George Floyd, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, and beyond. Further, it also seems disingenuous to have these very programs be paid for by the hard-working taxpayers when they are the ones who are already victimized by the offender. When they pay for their stay in jail, they are helping fund training for the law enforcement profession, families, and our communities by providing programming that destigmatizes the profession of law enforcement just a bit. We all recognize that better trained, healthier, emotionally sound officers are a benefit to all citizens, public and inmate alike.