JEFFERSON CITY • In one of his first acts as attorney general, Republican Eric Schmitt on Monday lent his office’s support to a man trying to end the practice of modern-day debtors’ prisons in Missouri.
Schmitt, the former state treasurer who was sworn into his new job last week, filed a brief in the Supreme Court of Missouri on behalf of George Richey, of Appleton City, Mo., saying counties do not have the authority to classify jail debts as court costs or fines.
“Courts should not be using the threat of jail time to generate funds for bloated big government budgets when other means of collection exist,” Schmitt said. “De facto debtors’ prisons have no place in Missouri, and I am proud to stand up against a system that seeks to treat its poorer citizens as ATMs.”
The issue of imprisoning people when they cannot pay their jail fees has been highlighted in recent months by St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger.
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In the brief, Schmitt notes a series of columns outlining the problems that jail time has caused people throughout rural Missouri.
Court rulings and legislative initiatives also are seeking to undo the practice.
In December, a state appeals court ruled that “nothing in (state law) provides specific authorization for the taxation of an unpaid board bill as a court cost.”
In the Missouri House, which begins its annual session Wednesday, Rep. Justin Hill, R-Lake Saint Louis, is sponsoring legislation that would address private probation companies, which he says are contributing to the problem.
The issue also is on the radar of Rep. Bruce DeGroot, R-Chesterfield.
As a state senator, Schmitt spearheaded similar reforms to practices that had allowed municipalities such as Ferguson to incarcerate people for being unable to pay fines associated with minor traffic violations.
The filing notes that jail time often begins a cycle that leads to the commission of more serious crimes.
“Repeat incarceration undoubtedly makes it more difficult for the offender to retain a full-time job and a permanent housing situation, both of which are important elements of successful re-entry and future financial stability,” it notes.
“The practice of taxing an inmate’s jail debt as ‘court costs,’ and then seeking to collect it through repeated show-cause hearings under threat of incarceration, is unauthorized by law and must end,” the brief notes.
“No statute authorizes the practice, and it lends itself to abuses that threaten the constitutional rights of Missouri citizens.”
The brief also argues there is a clear and specific method for collection of jail debts through civil collection practices, which does not include harsher methods of collection such as incarceration for an indigent individual who is unable to pay.
Schmitt took over as attorney general from fellow Republican Josh Hawley, who was sworn into the U.S. Senate last week.
Jailed for being poor is Missouri epidemic: A series of columns from Tony Messenger
Tony Messenger has written about Missouri cases where people were charged for their time in jail or on probation, then owe more money than their fines or court costs.
The Pulitzer Prize board considered these columns when it decided to award the prize for commentary to metro columnist Tony Messenger.
In a twist of irony, one judge no longer calls them “payment review hearings.” Instead, he’s even more direct. Now they are called “debt colle…
“The jail is emptying out. People that do come in are able to bond out quickly. None of the girls here are being held for financial reasons. T…
In a case of civil contempt — such as when a judge jails a reporter for not revealing a source, or an attorney for failing to follow an order …
Even with the state’s top court making progress in eradicating the practice of putting people in jail because they can’t afford to be in jail,…
“There are a pile of cases where people owe us money,” the judge told the defendant, a painter, who said he was having a hard time finding wor…
No longer, the court said in one voice, can judges in Missouri threaten indigent defendants with jail time for their inability to be able to a…
Disparate treatment of people charged with crimes offers a glimpse into a fundamental problem in the application of criminal justice in Missou…
Weiss wants the Legislature to make it illegal for counties to charge defendants for their time behind bars.
“How can they cancel a court date then issue a warrant without even telling you the new court date?” Sharp wonders.
His bill would stop the practice in Missouri of state police agencies avoiding state jurisdiction by seeking asset forfeiture under guise of f…
"He sat in jail because he was poor," public defender Matthew Mueller said of his client.
The two defendants are Exhibits A and B of why Missouri has become the front line in a national war on poverty and the courts.
She knows what she did was wrong. She knows she should have been punished.
“It's been a hard road,” she told me recently. “Really hard.”
For decades, Missouri’s corrections budget has been rising. So has its prison population, with a “tough on crime” philosophy filling prisons w…
“We’re hamstringing the very people who we want to go out and get a job,” Lummus says. “It’s self-defeating.”
In his regular appearance on the McGraw Milhaven show on KTRS radio, Metro columnist Tony Messenger discusses his ongoing debtors' prison series.
He did his time. Then he got the bill: $3,150 for his stay behind bars.
A year-end update on some of the cases Tony Messenger wrote about during 2018.
The primary difference between the poor people who have been “terrorized” in Edmundson or Jennings or Ferguson, compared with those in Salem a…
The Court of Appeals in the Western District of Missouri determined that the practice of using the courts to try to collect board bills is ill…
Some counties in Missouri don't charge board bills. Those include the most urban counties in the state: both the city and county of St. Louis,…
I did my time and then some. This is how they get people. They keep them on probation and then if they don't pay their board bill they violate…
By 2009, Rapp was behind in her payments and the court revoked her probation. She did a couple of days in jail and her cash bond of $400 was a…
Every week in Missouri, a judge somewhere holds a crowded docket to collect room and board from people who were recently in jail. The judges c…
“I don’t see why he has to keep going to court every month,” she says. Sharon uses her Social Security income to try to keep him out of jail. …
Because Precious Jones was late to jail, prosecutor and judge seek to add to her sentence.
The Missouri Supreme Court and Missouri Legislature should revisit their 2015 and 2016 efforts to reform courts. More work is necessary.
Other than now being required to meet federal standards for that drug testing, private probation companies face nearly no oversight in Missour…
“I messed up on probation,” he says. “It was my fault.” Still, he doesn’t think it makes sense that he’s still hauled to court once a month wi…
Murr owed Dent County about $4,000 for her “board bill” for the 95 days she had been jailed.
The domestic violence victim, Gaddis says, wouldn’t make a report to police because she feared going to jail herself and losing her child.
“They make you jump through hoops,” Bote says, “and then they keep moving the hoops higher.”
William Everts stole from a church. Almost immediately, he knew it was a bad idea.
Bergen has the sort of back story that would inspire one of the movies or television episodes based in the Ozarks that seem to be all the rage…
Clark ended up spending 495 days in county jail awaiting a trial that still hasn’t come.
Pritchett first called me last year, after I wrote about a St. Francois County woman who was sent to prison for failing to pay court costs. He…
Rob Hopple had been in jail since May after falling behind on payments on an ankle bracelet. Court dates kept coming and going, with the prose…
The bills are that high because the two criminal defendants couldn’t afford to pay for an initial sentence behind bars for relatively minor of…
“The practical reality is that people are being arrested for being poor,” Mueller says. “And there’s nothing they can do about it. They just s…
At least twice in recent years, the Missouri Supreme Court has overturned harsh sentences issued by a judge after she sent people to prison so…
Branson, in early 2018, was in Desloge, Mo., now, living with her 15-year-old son, checking in with her parole officer, hoping never to go bac…
Officially, Victoria Branson’s probation was revoked because she never paid the state the past due support and the court costs, which rang up …