An Alabama city reached a

with the Southern Poverty Law Center Tuesday to end a class action lawsuit that accused it, and its chief of police, of illegally jailing people too poor to pay fines resulting from traffic and misdemeanor offences.

The City of Alexander and Chief of Police Willie Robinson were accused of jailing at least 190 impoverished people over a two-year period, violating a number of U.S. constitutions and Alabama laws.

The settlement, which has preliminary approval from the U.S. District Court in Montgomery, will see the city and its insurer pay $680,000 for illegally jailing people between September 8, 2013, and September 8, 2015. Each on the class action will receive around $500 for every day they spent in jail. The court will hold a final hearing in August.

"Hundreds of impoverished residents have faced unconstitutional and unjust treatment in Alexander City simply because they were too poor to pay fines and fees," said Sam Brooke, SPLC deputy legal director, in a press release. "The shuttering of this modern-day debtors' prison, along with the monetary award, brings justice to many of the people who were unfairly targeted for being poor."

According to legal filings, defendents were deprived their right to counsel and were not asked by the judge if they could pay the fines. Those that could not pay in full were arrested and taken directly to jail. Inmates would pay off the fine at a rate of $20 per day by sitting in jail or $40 per day by completing tasks such as washing police cars, cleaning or doing laundry.

The arrests, according to the suit, violated Alabama law and the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as the Sixth Amendment, which protects individuals' right to counsel. The city was also accused of violating the defendants 14th Amendment right to due process and equal protection.

Around 30 percent of Alexander inhabitants live below the poverty line. Plaintiff Amanda Underwood is one such person, who was jailed twice for not being able to pay her fines. Underwood previously earned $8 an hour and has two young children, according to the SPLC release. After not being able to pay a fine of $205 for a traffic violation, Underwood had to borrow money to secure her release. On a separate occasion, Underwood was fined $250 for driving without a license. She spent five days in jail working off her debt.

"I am glad the city is going to pay everyone who they jailed, to try to undo some of the harm they caused," Underwood said to SPLC. "I am so proud that this lawsuit has made a difference. I hope it will help many others, especially those like me who have been unfairly punished for being poor."

Similar cases of poor people being jailed for not paying fines have popped up around Alabama in the last couple of years.

Montgomery Municipal Judge Lester Hayes was suspended without pay in November last year for jailing poor who couldn't pay fines. Perry County Judge Marvin Wiggins was disciplined in January 2016 for forcing poor people to choose between donating blood and going to jail.

"Courts are being sued and forced to change their procedures, and judges have been censured and suspended," Brooke said. "And now a municipality has been forced to pay those it illegally jailed. We hope and believe all courts are now getting the message: It is unacceptable to punish the poor just because of their poverty."