July 25, 2024
(St. Louis, MO) – As the ten-year anniversary of Mike Brown’s killing approaches, ArchCity Defenders (ACD) has released a white paper reflecting on reforms and litigation stemming from unconstitutional, profit-driven municipal legal practices brought to national attention during the Ferguson protests. The paper, “In the Rearview Mirror: St. Louis’ Municipal Courts After a Decade of Reform and Regress,” explains key legislative, litigation, and advocacy efforts that have shifted the region’s legal landscape, presents data on revenue, ticketing, and warrant trends, and highlights how municipal courts continue to harm poor and predominantly Black people. Finally, it reiterates calls by local organizations and legal scholars since 2014 to consolidate St. Louis’ municipal court system.
The paper is part of a multifaceted storytelling project called “Pay or Stay: The Fight to Abolish Debtors’ Prisons,” online now at bit.ly/pay-or-stay. The site features:
- “In the Rearview Mirror”: ACD’s 3rd municipal court white paper
- “Who Profits?”: This report identifies sources of financial extraction and the corrupting incentives that underpin municipal court operations
- Video Interviews: Eight interviews with attorneys and plaintiffs involved in debtors’ prison lawsuits provide personal insights into the harm experienced by thousands of primarily poor and Black people at the hands of municipal police, courts, and jails
- Interactive Map of St. Louis: Users can click through different areas of St. Louis to learn more about the municipalities where debtors’ prison lawsuits were filed
Court operations have scaled back significantly compared to 10 years ago. Comparing 2023 to 2014, Ferguson’s municipal court revenue has declined by 95.2%, ticket issuance by 91.8%, and warrant issuance by 95.3%. While Ferguson’s changes are among the most extreme, similar decreases are consistent in municipalities across the region. In 2013, the municipal courts of St. Louis City and County collected $61,152,087 in fines and fees, 46% of the statewide total despite being home to only 22% of Missourians. In 2023, the City and County courts collected $17,819,458.49.
Fine caps associated with Senate Bill 5 and changes to Supreme Court of Missouri (SCOMO) Rule 37 requiring municipal courts to meet minimum operating standards played a partial role in this shift. However, the reforms are far from perfect. For example, compliance with the minimum operating standards in SCOMO Rule 37, intended to address issues like improper fines, fees, and incarceration without due process, are largely self-enforced. ACD attorneys report that many St. Louis County municipal courts still fail to conduct meaningful inquiries into defendants’ ability to pay.
“While the municipal courts in this region have been investigated, shamed, and sued into their now-reduced level of activity, they remain a patchwork of self-directed and unaccountable institutions,” the paper warns. “Those ensnared in the trap of municipal police and courts still face a system that punishes and exacerbates poverty, with no identifiable benefit to public safety or community wellness.”
What’s more, traffic courts may be less crowded, but the demographic makeup of the dockets remains unchanged. Data from the Missouri Attorney General’s Vehicle Stops report shows no improvement in racial disparities in traffic stops over the past decade. In 2013, Black drivers in Missouri were stopped 1.59 times more often than other racial groups. In 2022, the exact same. Notably, the 2023 Annual State Report did not include the racial disparity metric at all.
The paper affirms, “[t]he only mechanism the municipal courts use to encourage people to act differently is to make them pay money… for having done something that often stemmed from a lack of money in the first place. The municipal court system is a minor annoyance if you have sufficient disposable income, but if you don’t, it becomes a significant barrier to financial and personal stability. This is the essence of the system, and it is no different today than it was in 2014.”
Since 2015, ArchCity Defenders has filed, litigated, and settled seven federal class action “debtors’ prison” lawsuits against municipalities in the St. Louis region: Jennings, Ferguson, St. Ann, Normandy, Edmundson, Maplewood, and Florissant. The cases settled for a total of $20,281,000. While municipalities never admitted wrongdoing, the litigation put them on notice for routinely ignoring and violating the rights of thousands of people at traffic stops, in court rooms, and in jails. Overall, the most significant impact of these cases was to significantly curtail the unconstitutional practice of jailing thousands of poor and Black people.
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Media Contacts:
Angelo Vidal, Communications Specialist, ArchCity Defenders
avidal@archcitydefenders.org
(314) 488-8614
Z Gorley, Director of Communications, ArchCity Defenders
zgorley@archcitydefenders.org
(314) 643-2463