In a shocking case of alleged police misconduct, the law enforcement of a small Mississippi town — 10 police officers in total — has been accused of transforming their community into a modern-day Dickensian nightmare.

The Lexington Police Department reportedly arrested nearly a quarter of the town’s population and extorted nearly $2 million in fines and fees while operating what amounted to a debtors’ prison, according to officials with the Department of Justice. The systematic abuse of power in this town of 1,400 has raised serious concerns about civil rights violations and the exploitation of the vulnerable.

“Lexington has turned the jail into the kinds of debtors’ prisons Charles Dickens described in his novels written in the 1800s. Only this is happening in Mississippi in 2024,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, Todd Gee, said at a press conference held on Thursday. 

A comprehensive investigation found a pervasive culture in which the Police Department had skirted proper procedures and bent the law to fill the city’s pockets with cash and operated under a conflict of interest because their funding depended entirely on the money it raised through enforcement. It’s alleged that they discriminated against black residents, used excessive force, jailed people on illegal “investigative holds” and held them solely on the because they owed outstanding fines.

“After an extensive review, we found that police officers in Lexington routinely make illegal arrests, use brutal and unnecessary force, and punish people for their poverty — including by jailing people who cannot afford to pay fines or money bail. For too long, the Lexington Police Department has been playing by its own rules and operating with impunity — it’s time for this to end,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The Justice Department’s report comes after a 10-month investigation and found that more than half of Lexington’s residents had warrants out on them for unpaid fines and fees and over the past two years, one out of every four residents were arrested, according to the New York Times. Most of the arrests were for noncriminal acts like using profanity, according to Justice Department officials.

“Going into town for any reason can mean going to jail,” the report said.

One example cited was the arrest of one woman for unpaid fines after she went to the Police Department to give a witness statement for a murder investigation.

In another example cited, Lexington police officers were seen on body camera videos brainstorming ways to levy additional charges such as ‘disturbing a business” for one man who fled from a physical attack and ran into the station for safety.