Targeting Unaffordable Bail Amounts, ACLU Of FL Sues Sarasota, Manatee County Sheriffs

SARASOTA, FL — The ACLU of Florida has filed a class-action lawsuit against Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt Hoffman, Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells and the state of Florida claiming that people’s due process rights are being violated because they’re being held in county jails on unaffordable bail amounts.

The organization filed the petition in Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal on behalf of 11 people who have been detained pretrial in Sarasota and Manatee county jails because they couldn’t afford their bails.

“The class-action (suit) seeks to challenge the respective counties’ routine practice of imposing monetary bail amounts on people who cannot afford to pay them resulting in their detention prior to having their day in court,” ACLU said in a news release.

In its 51-page petition, the organization called unaffordable bail “a systematic problem” that violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“The problem deserves a systematic solution. This court should remedy the unconstitutional deprivation of each petitioner’s liberty and of every other similarly situated person detained pretrial in the county jails in Sarasota and Manatee Counties, Florida,” ACLU wrote.

For the 11 petitioners and class members whose motion to modify bail was heard before the appeals courts releases a final order, the organization is calling for the court to release them on nonmonetary conditions, an affordable bail amount or both within five days.

For class members whose motion to modify bail was heard after a final order is issued by the court, the ACLU is asking for the sheriffs to release them.

The petition also seeks an order requiring the sheriffs and the state to justify the pretrial detention of each petitioner and class member through an unaffordable bail.

It also asks the court to declare that an unaffordable monetary bail constitutes pretrial detention and that the Fourteenth Amendment requires the lower court to find that the state established the need for these unaffordable bails resulting in pretrial detention “by clear and convincing proof.”

“The practice of setting unaffordable bail is a widespread practice in the state of Florida despite the existence of alternative tools to ensure people return to court. It also adds additional financial burdens to Florida's criminal justice system,” according to the ACLU news release.

It costs about $100 a day to house a person in jail in Manatee and Sarasota counties, the organization said. Each county jail holds about 300 people who are there just because they can’t afford their bail amounts.

“Unaffordable cash bail without due process promotes wealth-based incarceration and is an unconstitutional practice,” Benjamin Stevenson, staff attorney with the ACLU of Florida, said. “People caught in this system often lose their jobs, homes, ability to take care of their families and prepare for trial, simply because they cannot afford their pretrial freedom. For too long, we have ignored that detention is the practical result of an unaffordable bail and imposed de facto detention without really studying whether other options exist and whether locking a person up is really the only reasonable solution.”

Representatives of Sarasota and Manatee county sheriff’s offices said the state attorney general’s office is handling the lawsuit.

“The respective sheriffs in Florida follow the bail as set by the presiding judge. The bail procedures and amounts are set by the circuit court. Sheriffs do not set or control the bond amounts,” Kaitlyn Perez, community affairs director with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, said.

Melissa Conway, a public information specialist with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, said, “The petition is a Writ of Habeas Corpus, and as such, response to the petitioner(s) is handled by the Attorney General. There has been no civil action taken involving Sheriff Wells. Sheriffs have no authority over bail amounts or procedures. Bail amount is determined by a judge.”

Patch has contacted the office of Attorney General Ashley Moody for comment.