On October 16, Better Together released its study of the municipal courts in the St. Louis region. The report reveals troubling, systemic issues – most notably the fact that many municipalities bring in a large amount of their general revenue at the expense of poor, primarily African-American residents.
The study reveals rampant lack of oversight that allows St. Louis County municipalities – especially in North County – to use their courts to, in effect, tax the poor unfairly and trap them deeper in debt.
“We keep hearing the phrase ‘debtor’s prison,’” said Marius Johnson, coordinator of Community Based Studies for Better Together.
The report shows how the system has been allowed to function – or dysfunction. The presiding judge in St. Louis County must oversee 81 municipal courts, more than 10 times the number of courts as an average judge in Missouri. “This is lack of oversight by design,” Johnson said. “There is no way any one judge can keep track of that many courts.”
The combined populations of the 90 municipalities in St. Louis County account for only 11 percent of Missouri’s population, yet bring in 34 percent of all municipal court fines and fees statewide (more than $45.1 million in 2013).
“The municipalities claim it’s a public safety issue, but we see court fees and fines coming up as property values are going down,” said Dave Leipholtz, director of Community Based Studies for Better Together, “which makes it difficult to accept the public safety argument.”
Twenty of the 21 municipalities that derive at least 20 percent of their general budget from fines and fees are located north of Olive Boulevard and within the boundary of I-270. These municipalities’ populations are on average 62 percent black, with 22 percent below the poverty line. (By way of comparison, St. Louis County as a whole is 24 percent black with 11 percent below the poverty line.)
Combined with the Attorney General’s 2013 finding that black drivers were 66 percent more likely than white drivers to be stopped, it is clear that these municipalities’ method of financial survival comes primarily at the expense of black citizens.
“For some people, a $100 fine is a bad day, but for other people it starts a spiral of what bill will they not pay next,” Leipholtz said. “This system circles around and hits the poor in more and more ways.”
According to 2013 data, 73 of the 81 municipal courts turn a significant profit, bringing in more revenue than they require to operate. On average, a municipal court in St. Louis County brings in an average of $711,506 in revenue from fines and fees each year yet costs $223,149 to operate, leaving an average net revenue of $488,367.
“When people walk into these courtrooms, they see a city prosecutor and municipal judge, both paid for by their taxes, but no public defender,” Leipholtz said. “It feels like the deck is stacked against them.”
Better Together provided this data, as the group was accumulating it, to the activist attorneys at Arch City Defenders. The legal group’s White Paper, published at Archcitydefenders.org, provided background for much reporting on the Ferguson crisis, including a long, influential investigative piece by Radley Balko of the Washington Post, that has helped Arch City Defenders and the Saint Louis University School of Law legal clinic in their efforts to reform municipal courts.
To many, the misery embedded in North County municipal court statistics helps to explain the enduring rage and frustration that fuels the Ferguson protest movement more than 70 days after Police Officer Darren Wilson killed the unarmed black teen Michael Brown Jr. on August 9.
“The Ferguson protests are absolutely about Michael Brown being killed. But the anger and frustration is also about something larger, and I truly believe this is an important piece,” Johnson said.
“When people feel wronged, they can’t turn to anyone. They should be able to turn to the police and the courts, but people feel the police and the courts are the source of the problem. It leads people to lose trust in their government and the system.”
Read the Better Together report at http://www.bettertogetherstl.com/studies/public-safety/municipal-courts-report.
Follow this reporter at @chriskingstl.