What last week’s SCOTUS ruling on excessive fines and fees could mean for Alabama
Advocacy News, Carla Crowder, Fines and Fees, Leah NelsonAcross Alabama, residents lose their jobs, housing, drivers’ licenses, and spend long stretches in jail because they cannot afford to pay court fines and fees. This week, a unanimous United States Supreme Court reminded states that this is…
Public Support for Payday Reform Increases in Alabama
Dana Sweeney, Other Issuesby Dana Sweeney, Organizer
If you start asking around for people’s opinions of payday lending in Alabama, the responses will almost all follow along the same lines: that payday lenders are legalized loan sharks, that 456% APR interest rates…
Alabama’s Marijuana Laws are Costly to Enforce, Undermine Public Safety and Disproportionately Harm African Americans
Fair Schools, Safe Communities, Frank KnaackMarijuana prohibition costs the state and its municipalities an estimated $22 million a year, creates a dangerous backlog at the agency that tests forensic evidence in violent crimes, and needlessly ensnares thousands of people – disproportionately…
Groups Call for Investigation Into Potential Violations of Federal Law by Alabama Sheriffs with Federal Detention Contracts who Convert Jail Food Funds to Personal Use
NewsIn a letter sent yesterday to the United States Attorneys for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Alabama, the Southern Center for Human Rights, Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Adelante Alabama Worker Center, the American…
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Latest News
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Must Protect Consumers June 3, 2019
- Passage of SB30: Ensuring Greater Access to Justice for Low-Income Alabamians May 29, 2019
- Incarcerated people learn from their mistakes. The government that locks them up has not. April 5, 2019
- How a couple lost everything because of $50 worth of marijuana, a Lunesta pill, and an overzealous drug task force armed with the power to seize their assets March 30, 2019
- What last week’s SCOTUS ruling on excessive fines and fees could mean for Alabama March 3, 2019
Appleseed Network
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Must Protect Consumers
Dana Sweeney, News, Other IssuesThe Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently solicited public comments related to their proposal to weaken protections for payday loan borrowers. An open letter submitted to the CFPB by Alabama Appleseed follows: Dear Director Kraninger, For many years, The Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice (“Alabama Appleseed”) has been documenting the numerous and […]
Passage of SB30: Ensuring Greater Access to Justice for Low-Income Alabamians
Access to Justice, Legislature 2019, Phillip EnslerBy Phillip Ensler, Appleseed Policy Counsel In 2014, a little boy drowned in an apartment swimming pool with no fence. His mother sued the owners but because of backlogs and barriers in the courts, she was denied. Alabama Appleseed has been fighting for a solution to this injustice, and this week the Alabama Legislature responded […]
Incarcerated people learn from their mistakes. The government that locks them up has not.
Alabama prisons, Carla Crowder, Fair Schools, Safe Communities, NewsBy Carla Crowder, Alabama Appleseed Executive Director Antonio was incarcerated at St. Clair prison a few years ago when another prisoner bit off part of his ear. They were housed in a dorm that supposedly offered rehabilitative services. For Antonio, permanent disfigurement was the outcome. He did not seek revenge against the man who bit […]