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Lawsuit challenges 'custom' of jailing people for being poor

Lawsuit challenges 'custom' of jailing people for being poor

Lawrence County sobriety program jails people who can't pay for monitoring, lawsuit alleges

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Jonathan Ellis
Jun 18, 2023
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Lawsuit challenges 'custom' of jailing people for being poor
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When John Sitar showed up at the Lawrence County Jail on March 15, he had a problem.

Sitar was a participant in the county’s 24/7 sobriety program. As part of the program, he was required to replace a testing patch that monitored for illegal substances every two weeks. Each patch costs $50.

When he didn’t have $50 to get a new patch, Sitar was thrown in jail.

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