LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A central Arkansas city and judge are denying a lawsuit’s claims that they’re effectively operating a debtors’ prison with a court that has imposed hefty fines and jail time on thousands of people whose checks bounce.

Attorneys for Sherwood and District Judge Milas “Butch” Hale III on Wednesday denied the claims in the lawsuit accusing them of violating the constitutional rights of thousands of residents through the prosecution of hot check cases. The lawsuit was filed last month by The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on behalf of four people who were jailed and a Sherwood resident.

The civil rights’ groups contended in their suit that the central Arkansas city was running what amounts to a modern-day debtors’ prison, imposing heavy fines and jail time on thousands of poor people for writing bad checks.  

In March, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to state court administrators underscoring that jailing indigent people for failing to pay fines is unconstitutional. The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1983 that such punishments violate the Constitutions’s Equal Protection Clause.    

Hale and the city said in Wednesday’s filing the plaintiffs are required to appeal their convictions if they believe the sentences were illegal.

The city’s website said its “hot check” division issues more than 35,000 warrants each year on charges related to bad checks, and that it offers a collection service to impacted merchants and individuals at no cost, saying it can “boast an 85 percent collection rate for all cases handled.”