The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Benton County, Washington, for operating a “modern-day debtors’ prison.” The suit says Benton County routinely fines people more than $1,000 as part of criminal proceedings. If they can’t pay, they are sent to jail or forced to work manual labor. ACLU attorney Vanessa Hernandez says: “On any given day, scores of indigent persons sit in jail or do manual labor for the county simply because they are too poor to pay the government.”