diff --git a/fail2ban-testcases b/fail2ban-testcases
index ea95e9c5..cc616c0e 100755
--- a/fail2ban-testcases
+++ b/fail2ban-testcases
@@ -125,6 +125,7 @@ tests.addTest(unittest.makeSuite(filtertestcase.LogFile))
 tests.addTest(unittest.makeSuite(filtertestcase.LogFileMonitor))
 tests.addTest(unittest.makeSuite(filtertestcase.GetFailures))
 tests.addTest(unittest.makeSuite(filtertestcase.DNSUtilsTests))
+tests.addTest(unittest.makeSuite(filtertestcase.JailTests))
 
 # DateDetector
 tests.addTest(unittest.makeSuite(datedetectortestcase.DateDetectorTest))
diff --git a/server/jail.py b/server/jail.py
index 4ab83db4..dee64e7f 100644
--- a/server/jail.py
+++ b/server/jail.py
@@ -33,7 +33,9 @@ logSys = logging.getLogger("fail2ban.jail")
 class Jail:
 
 	#Known backends. Each backend should have corresponding __initBackend method
-	_BACKENDS = ('pyinotify', 'gamin', 'polling')
+	# yoh: stored in a list instead of a tuple since only
+	#      list had .index until 2.6
+	_BACKENDS = ['pyinotify', 'gamin', 'polling']
 
 	def __init__(self, name, backend = "auto"):
 		self.__name = name
diff --git a/testcases/filtertestcase.py b/testcases/filtertestcase.py
index eade537f..c10fa78d 100644
--- a/testcases/filtertestcase.py
+++ b/testcases/filtertestcase.py
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import sys
 import time
 import tempfile
 
+from server.jail import Jail
 from server.filterpoll import FilterPoll
 from server.filter import FileFilter, DNSUtils
 from server.failmanager import FailManager
@@ -626,3 +627,10 @@ class DNSUtilsTests(unittest.TestCase):
 				self.assertEqual(res, ['192.0.43.10'])
 			else:
 				self.assertEqual(res, [])
+
+class JailTests(unittest.TestCase):
+
+	def testSetBackend_gh83(self):
+		# smoke test
+		jail = Jail('test', backend='polling') # Must not fail to initiate
+