Civil Rights Attorneys Sue Ferguson Over ‘Debtors Prisons’
Joseph Shapiro
In a new challenge to police practices in Ferguson, Mo., a group of civil rights lawyers is suing the city over the way people are jailed when they fail to pay fines for traffic tickets and other minor offenses.
The lawsuit, filed Sunday night on the eve of the six-month anniversary of the police shooting of Michael Brown, alleges that the city violates the Constitution by jailing people without adequately considering whether they were indigent and, as a result, unable to pay.
The suit is filed on behalf of 11 plaintiffs who say they were too poor to pay but were then jailed — sometimes for two weeks or more.
NPR got an advance look at the lawsuit, filed by lawyers from Equal Justice Under Law, ArchCity Defenders and the Saint Louis University School of Law. It charges that Ferguson officials “have built a municipal scheme designed to brutalize, to punish, and to profit.”
In 2013, Ferguson collected $2.6 million in court fines and fees, mainly on traffic violations and other low-level municipal offenses. That was the city’s second-largest source of income, or about 21 percent of its total budget.
The lawsuit challenges the practice of jailing people when they can’t afford to pay those fines. When tickets go unpaid, people are summoned to court and usually offered a new payment plan. If they fail to show up or make the new payments, the city issues an arrest warrant.
In 2013, Ferguson, a city with a population of 21,000, issued nearly 33,000 arrest warrants for unpaid traffic violations and other minor offenses. Many of those were for people who lived outside the city.
READ MORE (and prepare to be filled with rage…)If you think Ferguson is the only city this kind of injustice is occurring in, think again. It’s probably happening in your own city, if you live State-side. The criminal justice system has been increasingly criminalizing poverty over the last 3 decades, and with the boom of the private prison system, it’s only going to get worse. The time for action is now. More than just protesting, we have to start attacking the laws and policy that allows these miscarriages of justice to occur. #staywoke #farfromover
Upfront: I am passing white so my situation wasn’t nearly as bad. But I got a speeding ticket in bumfuck Texas ten years ago, 2 days after my insurance had lapsed due to non payment. The highway patrolman also pointed at a solitary orange cone and said I was in a construction zone so it came out to over $3k with all the multipliers. I was a waitress living paycheck to paycheck with no way to pay that. So I attended the trial date they set for me to try to contest the ticket.
At the courthouse I waited in line for an hour to have a judge tell me “nope you are at fault and since you still haven’t renewed your car insurance—” (with what money???) “you’re paying the ticket.”
Outside, I was ushered to a line at the cashier window. Once I got up there I explained myself to the woman. Said I wasn’t contesting that I was speeding and I know my insurance was lapsed because I couldn’t afford it but I had to use my car to get to work. So I was willing to pay the ticket off, but I told her I need some sort of payment plan.
She then told me there was no such thing, no payment options. You just had to pay in full. I argued that I know for a fact they have payment plans because I had driven friends and family to this very courthouse to make payments on tickets. Then she looked me over and said “you don’t look like someone on welfare, so you don’t qualify. You options are jail time or payment in full.” I was upset and nearly crying at that point. She told me I had 30 days to come up with the money or I would be arrested.
So of course I didn’t make $3000 in 30 days (remember I had to eat and pay bills and still get myself to and from work). If I knew how to make extra money that fast, I would have. And all my friends and family are broke. So I came in, turned myself in and served 3 days in jail. It was humiliating and degrading and yes, it was 100% because I was broke. It felt so wrong that I was literally being punished for being poor.
On one hand I feel relieved knowing I wasn’t alone in this, because at the time I did feel alone. I didn’t understand why some people were allowed to make payments and I wasn’t. And no one would talk to me or explain. But on the other hand, I got off easy. 3 days was nothing compared to what PoC have had to deal with. Classism alone is painful. But racism and classism together ruins lives every day.
Hearseeno 