“font-family: Verdana;”>Three-year-old Ma’kaiyah Dees playfully slid down the gym bleacher steps at St. Louis Community College–Meramec on Saturday, Aug. 6.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>At the bottom step, her mother Cherie Kurtz, age 21, was filling out vouchers that would potentially set her family free of bench warrants and fear of jail time.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Kurtz’s husband Michael Dees Jr., age 23, cradled their infant son as he slept.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“This is all I worry about when I drive to work,” Dees said. “If I got locked up, I’m the only one who works, so we would have no income.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Dees “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>said he was blessed to find out about Better Family Life St. Louis Metropolitan’s Amnesty Program, which offers area residents court forgiveness for misdemeanor warrants.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Dees “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>recently married Kurtz and started taking online courses for music production. He feels like his life is getting on track, except for having about $1,200 in traffic fines.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>In the past, he’d been thrown in jail every year for for a week at a time for outstanding traffic warrants. Sometimes his employers would fire him.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Now with his family depending on the income from his two jobs, he can’t afford that risk, he said. But he also can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars in fines up front.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“This event helps bring families and communities closer together,” Dees said. “You don’t get people trying to help other people out like this very often. It truly is a blessing.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>About 3,000 people came to the community college on Aug. 6 to receive vouchers for warrants.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Residents have one more chance to participate in Amnesty Week this year. Between the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., on Saturday, August 13, residents can go to the St. Louis Community College at Forest Park in the theatre, located at 5600 Oakland Ave.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Last year, James Clark, BFL’s vice president of Community Outreach, said they distributed over 14,000 vouchers. To receive the vouchers, participants go through a 10-minute workshop where they receive information about civil responsibility and basic respect for the law. They take a copy to the municipality where they have a warrant and give it to the court clerk, along with $100. The court clerk will then lift the warrant and give them another court date.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“The beauty is the $100 is applied to the fine or the court cost,” Clark said. “They don’t lose it, it is applied.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Many people who came out on Aug. 6 said they were caught by traffic cameras. Tasha Welsh, age 26, has seven warrants in St. Louis city for traffic violations, each $100 a piece. She said she was skeptical about participating in Amnesty Week at first, but she was happy she took the advice of a friend who went through the program last year.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“It’s going to help a lot,” she said. “I really don’t want to go to jail.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Most people found out about the amnesty opportunity through friends or family, they said. Terrell Sanders, age 26, said his mother told him the program would help him with his outstanding MetroLink violation.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The most reoccurring theme that Clark heard from people was, “I’m tired of working for temp companies and landscape jobs. I want to be able to get a meaningful job,” he said. “And in our workforce, meaningful jobs are going to ask for a police record check.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Clark “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>said the amnesty program is a creative way for municipalities to deal with misdemeanor warrants, and it supports Better Family Life’s mission of preserving the most important unit that makes up society – the family. Police chiefs of both St. Louis city and county encourage citizens to participate for this very reason, Clark said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“They don’t want to arrest a mother with a warrant,” Clark said. “They would rather spend their time arresting criminals.”
