The House Judiciary Committee approves a bill that prevents individuals on pretrial release from being jailed if they don’t have the means to pay for sobriety program costs.

Proponents of the bill say it puts South Dakota statute in line with the U.S. Constitution.

Terra Larson is a lobbyist for the South Dakota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. She spoke on the conflict in committee Monday.

“If somebody’s willingly refusing to pay that’s different, but if somebody just absolutely cannot pay you cannot throw them in jail for failure to pay,” Larson said. “That’s a basic principle of American jurisprudence.”

Larson further the issue in South Dakota’s 24/7 project during committee questioning.

“Typically, how 24/7 is required, when you go and blow you pay your, I think it’s like $5, I don’t know off the top of my head,” Larson said. “And if you don’t have that then that is previously had been considered a bond violation and they’ll call it a no-blow and they’ll put you in jail.”

Pennington County reached a settlement last month after jailing people who couldn’t afford to pay for the 24/7 program fees.

Proponents say the bill’s language is modeled after that settlement.

Rep. Will Mortenson said he supports the bill because there is no opposition. However, he mentioned a potential unintended consequence.

“I would not that this might lead to fewer judges putting on 24/7 as a condition of release. They might just keep them in jail. Right? I mean if you’re not doing these things because they always have that option,” Mortenson said. “You can keep them in jail; they’re just letting them out as a condition of letting them out to be on 24/7.”

HB 1176 heads to the House Floor.