Lexington County has settled a lawsuit that called its detention center “a modern-day debtors’ prison.”

The suit brought in 2017 by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of South Carolina, and the Terrell Marshall Law Group alleged that five plaintiffs were held in the Lexington County Detention Center for between 20 and 63 days — because they couldn’t pay magistrate court fines that ranged from $680 to $1,907 — without the county providing the plaintiffs with constitutionally required access to legal representation.

The settlement, approved unanimously and without discussion by County Council at its Dec. 13 meeting, stipulates the county must increase the number of public attorneys assigned to the magistrate court system from three to six, raising the salary for the three existing attorney positions to $60,000 and matching that salary for at least two of the three additional positions. The county must also add a paralegal, an administrative assistant, an investigator and a social worker assigned to the court.

The terms of the settlement were first reported by The State.

Prior to the settlement, Federal Judge Sherrie Lydon ruled that the county “has engaged in policies, procedures, and customs that cause systemic deficiencies in funding, staffing, and assignment of cases to public defenders with the result that indigent people in the LCMC are deprived of court-appointed counsel.”

"This is a case that has been partially settled as to Lexington County with the result being that Lexington County will add some positions to the public defender’s office," Jessica Imbimbo, the county's public information officer, responded to the Chronicle's request for comment. "Beyond this, the county cannot make any more comments as there is still a pending issue as to court approval of the settlement and any award of attorney’s fees."

In a release, the ACLU of South Carolina calls the settlement “a transformational win for people facing misdemeanor and traffic charges who are unable to afford a lawyer, as well as for criminal justice advocates who have long pointed to the state’s magistrate and municipal courts as sites of rampant constitutional violations.”

“The United States Supreme Court ruled decades ago that the government must provide a public defender to any person who faces the possibility of jail for a criminal charge or unpaid court debt,” Toby J. Marshall of the Terrell Marshall Law Group is quoted. “This settlement puts an infrastructure in place for Lexington County to finally meet that obligation.”

In its release, the ACLU claims the county didn’t have a single public defender assigned to represent criminal defendants in magistrate court as recently as 2013.

“It is truly terrifying to face the Magistrate Court system without having an attorney who can explain the law and make sure your rights are protected,” Sasha Darby, one of the plaintiffs in the case, is quoted. “The changes in this settlement are a long time coming, and I am so happy that this means more people will have meaningful access to counsel.”