Eligible Birmingham residents can have their failure to appear warrants for nonviolent offenses recalled and new court dates set through Amnesty Week, Aug. 7-11, an event created with the goal of building trust between citizens and the judicial system.

The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office in Birmingham is holding the Amnesty Week event at the Jefferson County Courthouse Criminal Justice Center. The event is made possible by a partnership between the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, the public defender’s office and the courts.

Community members who are interested in Amnesty Week can call the public defender’s hotline for more information and to verify if they are eligible at 205-307-7021 from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m.

Birmingham’s first Amnesty Week took place in 2021 and was extremely successful with almost 500 participants and zero arrests made, organizers said. Eligible residents with active failure to appear warrants for traffic cases, misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies had their warrants recalled and court dates reset. Some were also able to have their outstanding debts relating to court costs or fines for traffic offenses or nonviolent cases waived.

Both District Attorney Danny Carr and Circuit Judge Stephen Wallace recalled multiple participants of the 2021 Amnesty Week crying after meeting with the judges, relieved they were able to set new court dates and have their warrants recalled.

“They are afraid to be productive members of society because they have that warrant out. They’re afraid to drive to work. They’re afraid to go out and look for a job because of that warrant, so we want to allow them to participate in this Amnesty Week,” Carr said.

Jefferson County Public Defender Adam Danneman said people miss their court dates for several valid reasons including childcare, work, or not having the resources or information to attend court.

“When arrest warrants are issued, a lot of people go to jail and get a hearing within 72 hours, but that 72 hours can be real costly for our clients. They could lose jobs, they can lose custody of their kids, they certainly lose their freedom,” Danneman said. “So, the goal of this program is to avoid all of these pretrial arrests for those offenses.”

Public defenders, members of the district attorney’s office and judges will be volunteering their time throughout Amnesty Week to provide resources to, and serve, those who are apprehensive about going to court and are interested in participating in Amnesty Week.

“Every single judge who is working this event, the entire bench, has assured both the state and our office that we’re not looking to arrest people,” Danneman said. “It’s actually the opposite. We’re trying to get more people to avoid arrest because pretrial arrest is a huge, huge impediment in the justice system.”

Arrests are costly to both the state and taxpayers. Detaining, housing, and feeding people who have been arrested for failure to attend court for nonviolence offenses is a burden for all involved parties.

Wallace said Amnesty Week is more efficient and a much better use of court and law enforcement resources than having police make arrests and detain them.

“It also sort of takes out the intimidating factor of coming to court,” Wallace said. “But we know that people fear coming into court, they don’t know what’s going to happen. They’re not familiar with the system.”

Amnesty Week is a chance for the Jefferson County courts to build trust with its residents and give grace to those who missed their original court date for any reason, Wallace said. “This is also an effort to communicate to the public at large that it’s far better and you will be treated with respect and dignity if you just come to court,” he said.

Carr will be volunteering for Amnesty Week and deploying his team to ensure the event is efficient and helpful for all participants who choose to attend.

“We are just making sure that people understand that this is not a hoax that we’re truly trying to help the community and truly trying to help individuals get these cases behind them,” Carr said.