On July 9, 2015, an individual sentenced to prison due to inability to pay a fine filed this lawsuit in Michigan Circuit Court for the County of Macomb. The plaintiff, represented by the Michigan ACLU filed the complaint requesting the court take superintending control over the 38th District Court, and order a district court to refrain from imposing “pay or stay” sentences on indigent defendants who do not have the ability to pay. The plaintiff claimed that this was the only adequate remedy, because individual appeals on a case-by-case basis would be too time consuming and burdensome to adequately address the problem. Further, filing an immediate appeal would not keep the defendant out of jail.

On March 8, 2016, Judge James M. Macaroni entered a stipulation and order of superintending control over the 38th District Court. The injunction, lasting a term of two years, states that the District Court can’t sentence nor revoke probation for failure to comply with an order to pay money unless the defendant is able to pay. The order states that alternatives to payment can be used, like a payment plan, or waiver of some amount of the money owed to the extent it is permitted by law. Additionally, the order altered all sentences imposed on the defendant in pending cases before the court so that they complied with this order.

Edward Cullen - 01/30/2019


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