DETROIT (CN) — The largest district court in Michigan agreed to a settlement Tuesday in a federal class action lawsuit accusing the court of routinely and unconstitutionally detaining poverty-stricken defendants despite evidence they lack the cash to post bail.
Phil Mayor, senior staff attorney for the Michigan ACLU, which filed the lawsuit, told the Associated Press the settlement could affect courts nationwide.
"This is a historic agreement that we believe can and should be a template for how courts around the country can adapt their bail practices to what is lawful, constitutional and sensible," he said.
Under the settlement, judges can still impose bail on defendants but need to explain their reasoning.
“Cash bail shall not be imposed unless the court makes an additional finding, on the record and pursuant to the terms set forth…that a danger to any person or the public cannot be managed by use of non-cash release condition consistent with…the Michigan Court Rules,” the agreement states.
Twyla Carter, outgoing national legal and policy director for The Bail Project, told the AP she was encouraged by the news.
"We are still moving forward in a very thoughtful way, to say that the presumption of innocence matters, that mass incarceration of pretrial people needs to be reversed, and that racial disparities at the pretrial stage need to be addressed in a very real way," she said.
The settlement will prevent judges from imposing bond if the only option for the defendant is to use a bail bondsman.
“The presiding officer shall not consider an amount of cash bail to be affordable if the only way the accused individual can afford to post the amount is by paying or otherwise inducing a bondsman or surety to post the amount on their behalf,” the settlement states.
The agreement will also mandate that appointed defense attorneys will need to complete at least two hours of refresher training on the new terms and conditions every two years.
The AP reported that as part of the settlement, the plaintiffs will split a payment of $14,000. Lawyers said the amount was agreed to with the knowledge that the court would also spend money to track bail and pretrial detention. The 36th District Court was not required to admit wrongdoing as part of the agreement.
The court's Chief Judge William McConico told the AP that settling the class action presented an opportunity to show that law enforcement and activists can work together to change the criminal legal system.
"Other African American cities will be able to point to what one of the largest district courts in the country is doing to address this issue," said McConico, who is Black. "That's why it is so important that this is starting in a major Black city, that it is not being rolled out in a suburban city or a small court."
The Michigan chapter of the ACLU filed the class action in 2019 against six judges and the sheriff in Detroit, claiming the state’s largest district court unconstitutionally ignored a defendant’s ability to pay bail before they are detained.
The 66-page complaint filed by ACLU lawyers led by Philip Mayor, in addition to attorneys with the nationwide firm Covington & Burling, claimed that “poor people in Detroit are routinely jailed because they cannot afford bail,” which they condemned as “unnecessary, unconstitutional, and costly discrimination against indigent people accused of crimes.”
The lead plaintiff was Davontae Ross, who was arrested outside of his apartment for failing to appear at a 2014 hearing over a misdemeanor ticket he had received that year for staying in a park after dark.
Ross was taken to the Detroit Detention Center on the day of his arrest. During his arraignment via videoconference the next morning, for which he did not have an attorney present, the magistrate judge allegedly set his bail at $200 without giving Ross any reason for why it was set at that amount or asking if he could afford it.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is senior counsel at Covington & Burling, told the AP he was happy with the progress and the city’s willingness to cooperate.
"This is how our criminal justice system should work," he said. "It can, and should be, a model for other jurisdictions across the country."
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