USA: is there a constitutional right to cash in on the Poor?

They elect local judges in Craighead County, Arkansas, and two men decided two years ago to run for the bench there with a clear mission statement: if elected they would rein in a private probation company called The Justice Network and the local judge and prosecutor they said had countenanced its work.

The company, they claimed during their aggressive campaign, made its money by ensuring that the citizens of the county consigned to probation for petty crimes were trapped in a “debtors’ prison” system that forced them to pay beyond their means or face jail.
The two men, David Boling and Tommy Fowler, won their elections in March 2016. They discovered on taking office that their campaign claims, if anything, were understated. There were 50,000 outstanding warrants, covering more than 8,000 people, in the misdemeanor court there; nearly one outstanding warrant for every two people in the county.
Judge Boling later described what those figures looked like in his courtroom; of the 34 defendants who came before him one day in August 2016 only six were accused of crimes; the others all had run afoul of the The Justice Network.The two new judges immediately made good on their campaign promises.

They moved to end the county’s relationship with The Justice Network and they initiated an “Amnesty Day” program in which they met with men and women on probation to discuss payment options. In some cases, some of the fees that were owed were waived, freeing up those caught in endless cycles of debt and fear of imprisonment.

A story that illustrates how local communities, especially in the South, are fighting back against predatory private probation practices, right? Sure. A story with a happy ending, right? Not yet. This past June, The Justice Network went to federal court in Arkansas and sued the two judges, the county, and the cities within it.

The amnesty program, the company alleges, violates its civil rights under the Constitution because it interferes with the contractual relationship the company had with the indigent probationers of the county. The judges, the company claims, caused it to suffer economic loss by waiving those onerous fees, and caused it to lose its “property” in the form of income from those caught in its web of fees and fines.

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