Friend,

Nortasha Jackson of Valley, Alabama, was arrested and jailed for nonpayment of an $85 trash collection bill three months overdue, despite her attempts to arrange payment. Jackson is just one of many who have been harmed by the town of Valley’s practice of arresting people who could not pay their bills.

82-year-old Martha Menefield was also arrested for owing $77 for trash pickup. And, Menefield and Jackson’s cases were not unusual. Even though the concept of "debtors’ prison” has been declared unconstitutional, the city of Valley had been arresting its citizens for years over past-due trash bills, adding hundreds if not thousands of dollars to the owed amount in fines and court costs by the poorest of its residents. Not surprisingly, those charged under the policy are predominantly people of color.

The SPLC helped Nortasha Jackson get the charges against her dismissed in February 2023 and, months later, the local district attorney announced his office would no longer pursue charges in cases involving late utility bills — directly citing a letter from the SPLC.

The SPLC is committed to ending the inequities of the criminal legal and immigration systems while helping safeguard the rights of those trapped within them. We focus on disrupting mass incarceration and the school-to-prison pipeline, fighting the criminalization of Black and Brown communities, and investigating the human rights abuses of detained and incarcerated people.

In 2023, the impact of our work was felt in Valley, where poor residents are no longer punished with jail time for past-due utility bills. It was also felt in…

• Marion County, Florida, where we reached a settlement on behalf of a lawful permanent resident unlawfully detained and referred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Marion County Sheriff’s Office was forced to end its policy of automatically notifying ICE of arrests based on foreign birth alone, among other policy changes, and pay $150,000 in damages.

• Alabama, where we filed a lawsuit to challenge the criminalization of pregnant Alabamians forced to leave the state to receive legal abortion care.

• Louisiana, where we filed a lawsuit with legal partners on behalf of families against the St. Bernard Parish School Board for allegedly violating the rights of students with disabilities, placing them in punitive alternative schools without proper accommodations or adequate education services.

• And, helped remove children in secure custody from Louisiana’s Angola state prison, an adult maximum-security prison, where they reportedly faced abuse and lack of educational services.

Together, we are bringing meaningful, positive change to the communities that need it most. Thank you for being a partner in our work. Will you join us in our future work by making a special gift to the SPLC today?

Sincerely,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center