The Times is counting down its top stories of 2022. Here’s No. 8:

For the first time in five years, the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) was allowed to reinstate a cash bond schedule after a federally placed injunction was lifted this year.

A lawsuit filed by Bradley Hester in 2017 resulted in U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala placing an injunction against the CCSO which required that arrestees meeting certain criteria be released on appearance bonds only a year later in 2018.

The CCSO has been fighting that “catch and release” system for the last five years.

The case’s most recent development came from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta earlier this year. While the Court’s ruling did not dismiss the case entirely, it did ultimately find that the CCSO’s 2018 bond schedule was in line with the Constitution, and called for the injunction to be lifted.

On November 30, Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry held a press conference announcing that the 2018 bond schedule would be immediately reinstated.

“For the last five years, we have fought tooth and nail over this lawsuit, and we fought it all the way to the 11th circuit. They made a ruling in our favor, that, basically, we were doing everything right under a 2018 order that was in place over our presiding judge with regard to bail. So, that means the injunction was lifted, and this morning, after five years we have bail again in Cullman County,” Gentry said.

Cullman Attorney Melvin Hasting — who originally represented the plaintiff Ray Shcultz before the case was taken on by the Southern Poverty Law Center — that prior to the lawsuits filing, he would regularly have clients spend weeks in jail without a conviction before being seen by a judge. He said that the court’s policies, requiring an accused person to be seen by a judge within 72 hours of their arrest, is now being more strictly enforced.

“The real result of this lawsuit is you don’t have people stuck in jail anymore. They’re actually getting them in front of a judge,” Hasting said, speaking to The Times.

At a November press conference, Gentry commented on the finality of the court’s decision.

“This is done,” he said. “Once the 11th circuit made its ruling for the injunction to be lifted, then the 2018 order that our presiding judge put in place is the final ruling.”

Hasting disagreed. Citing the court’s order, he said that although the injunction was lifted, and the judicial defendants were dismissed, that the lawsuit is still ongoing.

The case is now set to reappear before the district courts to issue further rulings.