A Debtors’ Prison In Mississippi
By Radley Balko October 21 at 4:35 PM
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Joseph Anderson, in front of his home in Biloxi, Mississippi (William Widmer/ACLU)
During a single week in 2011, Joseph Anderson, 52, suffered three heart attacks and a stroke. The latter left the left side of his body partially paralyzed. Later that year, he suffered a fourth heart attack. Prior to his health problems, Anderson worked as a mechanic at a local Best Western. After that disastrous stretch, he has been unable to work, and struggles to get by on the less than $10,000 per year he gets in various forms of public assistance.
In 2012 a Biloxi, Mississippi, police officer pulled Anderson over for speeding. He was fined $170, or about 20 percent of his monthly income. When he couldn’t pay that amount, a city judge sentenced Anderson to 12 months of misdemeanor probation. He was ordered to pay $50 per month to the city until his fine was paid off. But that wasn’t all. Anderson’s probation would be administered by a private company called Judicial Correction Services, Incorporated (JCS). In addition to what he owed the city, he was also ordered to pay JCS a $10 set-up charge, and a $40 monthly “supervision fee.” That $40 fee was due each month for the duration of his probation, even once he had paid off his original fine. All of which means that because Anderson was too poor to pay his $170 fine, his overall debt ballooned to $580. His fine more than tripled, solely because he was too poor to pay it.
Anderson did the best he could, paying JCS about $20 per month for the first few months of his probation. But that wasn’t enough. In September 2012, Biloxi Municipal Court Judge Eugene Henry issued a warrant for Anderson’s arrest.
In the last week of 2012, a Biloxi police officer came to Anderson’s home. When Anderson opened his door, the officer immediately arrested him, in front of Anderson’s girlfriend Qumotria Kennedy and her teenage son and daughter. Despite his physical condition (he can’t walk without assistance), Anderson was handcuffed and stuffed into the back of a patrol car. He was taken to the Harrison County Adult Detention Center, a sprawling facility in Gulfport lined with chain fences and coils of razor wire. It’s the largest jail in Mississippi, with 760 beds, although according to the Sheriff’s Department website, it typically exceeds capacity with an average of 800-900 inmates per day.
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