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CHICKASAW, Ala.—A small Alabama suburb has agreed to drop pending criminal charges against its residents over unpaid garbage bills. 

The city’s decision follows intervention by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based legal nonprofit, and exclusive investigative coverage by Inside Climate News. 

Micah West, an attorney for the SPLC, said this week that the anti-poverty organization, which had threatened to sue over the town’s practices, has reached an agreement with city leaders that he feels protects the best interests of Chickasaw’s residents. 

“Suspending garbage pickup, imposing harsh late penalties and prosecuting people who through no fault of their own are unable to pay their garbage and sewage bills does not make payment suddenly forthcoming,” West said. “Those practices make the prospect of repayment that much harder. We are thankful that the city is willing to work with us to address these concerns.”

The city of Chickasaw has not yet responded to requests for comment on the agreement. 

Since the City Council’s passage of a “theft of utility service” ordinance allowing the practice in 2021, officials had chosen to prosecute residents over unpaid trash bills. An examination of court records revealed that the policy resulted in more than 180 cases within the town of around 6,500 people. Chickasaw’s garbage prosecutions disproportionately impacted Black women and affected a significant number of individuals with disabilities, records and Inside Climate News interviews showed.

Shaquala Jackson, a Black mother, told Inside Climate News that she simply wasn’t able to pay the total amount she’d owed the city for trash services and late fees. But partial payments to catch up over time, city officials had said, would not be accepted. 

“And I just couldn’t pay that much,” she said. 

Soon, her trash can was taken, and her uncollected garbage began to pile up. After her 3-year-old screamed at the sight of a rat inside the home, Jackson packed her family’s bags and left. 

Experts from SPLC told Inside Climate News in September that they believed the city’s practice violated both state and federal law. 

Being jailed over debt, for example, is explicitly prohibited by the Alabama Constitution. 

SPLC lawyers expressed their concerns in a letter sent to the city attorney on Sept. 11. 

“Our review of the City’s billing practices, its theft of service ordinance, nearly 200 criminal case files, and conversations with dozens of Chickasaw residents indicate that the City’s practices violate multiple constitutional provisions and state and federal laws,” the letter said.

Less than a month since that letter was sent, West said he hopes that city leaders will continue to work with organizations like the SPLC to protect Chickasaw’s most vulnerable residents. 

Chickasaw is not the only city in Alabama to have criminalized unpaid garbage bills. 

In 2022, the city of Valley garnered national headlines after its police officers arrested 82-year-old Martha Menefield for failure to pay a $77 trash bill, placing her in handcuffs at her own home. Soon, dozens of similar cases within Valley were brought to light. After intervention from lawyers at SPLC and other organizations, the local district attorney agreed to end the practice. 

West said he is concerned that the criminalization of unpaid utility bills may be more common than experts previously realized. Inside Climate News found cases in two other Alabama communities in addition to Valley and Chickasaw.

“We can see now in Chickasaw that Valley was not an isolated incident,” West said. “We think that cities throughout the state of Alabama are prosecuting people who fall behind on their garbage bills.”

That potential for abuse of the criminal justice system dictates bigger policy changes, according to SPLC experts, which would help put Alabama in line with other states.

“Alabama appears to be alone in prosecuting people who fall behind on their garbage and sewage bills,” said Ellen Degnan, a senior attorney with SPLC’s Economic Justice litigation team. “We are not aware of any other state that criminalizes people who fall behind on their utility bills.”

In Alabama, municipal or county governments often oversee garbage collection services, leaving questions about collections up to local officials. Degnan said, however, that practices like those in Chickasaw and elsewhere show a need for a stronger statewide standard—that no one be criminally prosecuted over a utility bill they simply can’t afford to pay. 

“The need for statewide reform is undeniable,” she said.