Iowa inmates get second shot at challenging county jail fees

DES MOINES, Iowa (CN) — The Eighth Circuit revived two former Iowa jail inmates’ lawsuit Wednesday over a county policy of collecting jail fees through a “confession of judgment."

Black Hawk County charges jail inmates $70 dollars per day of incarceration plus a $25 booking fee. Under ordinary Iowa practice, if a released inmate does not pay voluntarily, a county must collect unpaid fees by filing a civil reimbursement claim that is reviewed by an Iowa court. By asking prisoners to sign a “confession of judgment,” Black Hawk County commits them to paying fees upon their release without the right to challenge the collection in court.

Two former prisoners — Leticia Roberts and Calvin Sayers — sued in federal court claiming Black Hawk’s practice is unconstitutional.

Roberts, a single mother of three in Waterloo, Iowa, signed a sheriff’s confession of judgment as she was being released from jail, assuming she had no choice. According to the ACLU of Iowa, which is representing her and others in a class action against the sheriff and the county, Roberts is still trying to pay off the $730 bill two years later.

The plaintiffs argue in their complaint that the sheriff denied them their 14th Amendment right to due process by getting them to sign the document prior to release confessing to owing the $95 daily jail fees — without providing an opportunity to be heard in court.

Chief U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams granted Black Hawk County’s motion to dismiss in November 2024, finding the inmates were not deprived of their property and “voluntarily” paid the jail fees.

The Eighth Circuit panel disagreed with the Donald Trump appointee, holding that the plaintiffs have protected property interests in the money collected for their jail fees and standing to argue their claims. The three-judge panel remanded the case to the lower court for further proceedings.

Without the confessions of judgment, U.S. Circuit Judge Raymond Gruender wrote, the county would have to collect jail fees through the civil reimbursement process, which would provide prisoners an opportunity to challenge the jail fee in state court.

“Because we assume that Roberts and Sayers would be successful on the merits, we assume that the county’s use of confessions of judgment is constitutionally inadequate process,” Gruender wrote. “Roberts and Sayers plausibly allege the county actually deprived them of their interests in their money without due process, so they both allege an injury-in-fact.”

The panel also determined Roberts and Sayers have standing to seek injunctive or declaratory relief against the county’s jail fee collection process, because past injury alone does not show standing to seek injunctive or declaratory relief.

“The injury Roberts and Sayers suffered will recur if the county uses the confessions of judgment to collect more money by, for example, filing the confessions,” said Gruender, a George W. Bush appointee. “Because the policy is still in effect and the confessions of judgment are still in the county’s possession, Roberts and Sayers plausibly allege a real and immediate threat that the county will file the confessions, resulting in new deprivations without adequate process.”

“Today’s victory is so important in Iowa, because it will allow our clients to continue our case to try to finally stop this practice in Black Hawk County, and because it sends a message to every other county not to start,” said Rita Bettis Austen, legal director of the ACLU of Iowa.

The Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment Wednesday “because the matter is presently in litigation.”

U.S. Circuit Judge James Loken, a George H.W. Bush appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge L. Steven Grasz, a Donald Trump appointee, rounded out the federal appellate panel along with Gruender.

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