Warrant amnesty can help you save money, avoid jail
By Ed Spillane, Municipal Court Judge
Since the City of College Station began our warrant amnesty/warrant roundup program in 2007, we’ve cleared about 5,500 warrants valued at more than $1.8 million. The twice-yearly amnesty period has proven to be a win for defendants and our court because it’s provided a path for people to pay outstanding warrants and avoid jail.
The spring warrant amnesty period for the City of College Station and Brazos County starts Monday and runs through March 3.
If you have an outstanding warrant, you can avoid paying a $50 per case warrant fee if you pay the fine in full. During the warrant roundup March 4-12, city marshals, police officers, reserve police officers, and constables will arrest those who haven’t paid their fines.
If you have an unpaid outstanding warrant, there’s a good chance you’ll be arrested.
Many cities do the roundup without offering amnesty, but we think the amnesty period is important because you can make restitution, save a little money, and avoid jail time.
We’ve been a leader in encouraging other courts to participate, and now there is a statewide round-up in March. Our court has even been recognized by The Baltimore Sun as a national leader due to our amnesty program.
Do you have an outstanding warrant?
If the College Station Police Department issued your citation, you can check your warrant’s status at cstx.gov/warrants. You may also call the College Station Municipal Court at 979-764-3683.
No partial payment schedules will be allowed if you want to avoid the $50 fee. The City of College Station accepts cash, cashier’s check, credit cards, money orders, and personal checks. You may also pay your outstanding warrant through our online citation payment system.
If you have an outstanding warrant, I strongly encourage you to take care of it today. It’s a much better option than going to jail.
Related Link:
Podcast: Judge Spillane on warrant amnesty and toughest cases (Oct. 14, 2015)
About the Author
Ed Spillane is president of the Texas Municipal Courts Association and has been the presiding judge of College Station’s Municipal Court since 2002. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1985 and earned his Doctor of Law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1992.
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Save money, avoid jail during fall warrant amnesty
By Ed Spillane, Municipal Court Judge
Since the City of College Station began our warrant amnesty/warrant roundup program in 2007, we’ve cleared about 5,500 warrants valued at more than $1.8 million. The twice-yearly amnesty period has proven to be a win for defendants and our court because it’s provided a path for people to pay outstanding warrants and avoid jail.
The fall warrant amnesty period for the City of College Station and Brazos County starts today and runs through Nov. 4.
If you have an outstanding warrant, you can avoid paying a $50 per case warrant fee if you pay the fine in full. During the warrant roundup Nov. 5-13, city marshals, police officers, reserve police officers and constables will arrest those who haven’t paid their fines.
If you have an unpaid outstanding warrant, there’s a good chance you’ll be arrested.
Many cities do the roundup without offering amnesty, but we think the amnesty period is important because you can make restitution, save a little money, and avoid jail time.
We’ve been a leader in encouraging other courts to participate, and now there is a statewide round-up in March. Our court has even been recognized by The Baltimore Sun as a national leader due to our amnesty program.
Do you have an outstanding warrant?
If the College Station Police Department issued your citation, you can check your warrant’s status at cstx.gov/warrants. You may also call the College Station Municipal Court at 979-764-3683.
No partial payment schedules will be allowed if you want to avoid the $50 fee. The City of College Station accepts cash, cashier’s check, credit cards, money orders, and personal checks. You may also pay your outstanding warrant through our online citation payment system.
If you have an outstanding warrant, I strongly encourage you to take care of it today. It’s a much better option than going to jail.
About the Author
Ed Spillane has been the presiding judge of the College Station Municipal Court since 2002 and serves as president of the Texas Municipal Courts Association. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1985 and earned his Doctor of Law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1992.
If you found value in this blog post, please share it with your social network and friends!
How Judge Spillane re-ignited a national dialogue on indigency and courts
By Jay Socol, Public Communications Director
College Station Municipal Court Judge Ed Spillane talks every year about how he doesn’t want to send anyone to jail. He offers too many alternatives — warrant amnesty, payment plans, community service — for those unable to pay fines for Class-C misdemeanors or who have outstanding warrants from his court.
But apparently Judge Spillane’s message to the public — that indigent people are constitutionally protected from being sent to a “debtor’s prison” — has drawn attention from the entertainment industry, law schools, universities, and the highest levels of the federal government.
How? He wrote a letter, and The Washington Post did the rest.
In this podcast edition, Judge Spillane explains the remarkable traction his message is receiving.
Click below to listen. If Soundcloud doesn’t play in your older version of Internet Explorer, click here to listen to the audio file from your system.
About the Author
Jay Socol (@jaysocol) is in his seventh year as College Station’s public communications director. A 1991 graduate of Texas A&M. Jay has also been communications director for the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, public information officer for the City of Bryan, and news director at several Bryan-College Station area radio stations. He is a native of Breckenridge.
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Why Judge Spillane refuses to send people to jail for failure to pay fines
Editor’s Note: This op-ed first appeared in Sunday’s Washington Post. As of Monday afternoon, it had received more than 200,000 clicks on the Post’s website.
By Ed Spillane, Presiding Judge, College Station Municipal Court
Melissa J. showed up in my court last year with four kids in tow. Her children quietly watched from a nearby table while I spoke with her. The charges against her — driving with an invalid license, driving without insurance, not wearing a seat belt, failure to use a child safety seat properly and four failures to appear — were nothing unusual for municipal court. Nor were her fines of several thousand dollars.
But for Melissa, who had a low-paying job and a husband in prison, and who looked like she hadn’t slept in days, that number might as well have been several million.
As a municipal judge in College Station, I see 10 to 12 defendants each day who were arrested on fine-only charges: things like public intoxication, shoplifting, disorderly conduct and traffic offenses. Many of these people, like Melissa, have no money to pay their fines, let alone hire a lawyer.
What to do with these cases?
Podcast: Judge Spillane on warrant amnesty and toughest cases
By Jay Socol, Public Communications Director
College Station Municipal Court Judge Ed Spillane doesn’t want you to go to jail. If you run afoul of the law, he just wants you to come to court so the best-case scenario can be worked out.
In this edition of the podcast, Judge Spillane talks about why he offers a warrant amnesty period. He also describes the toughest cases he sees, some of the biggest misconceptions about the court, and his many experiences with “helicopter parents.”
Legislative changes will affect juvenile court cases
As a municipal court judge, I see many young defendants who are in court for the first time. My job is to make sure these juveniles don’t appear again in my court, or any other. Starting next week, recent legislative changes will affect the type of cases we see.
Class C Offenses
Citations can no longer be issued for Class C offenses (other than traffic) that occur on school property and involve defendants between 10 and 16 years old. The most common tickets in any school are for class disruption, disorderly conduct or inappropriate language. A witness with knowledge must now sign an affidavit, and a complaint approved by the prosecutor must be filed in court before the police can file charges.
