City to pay $3.25M in debtors’ prison lawsuit

A Missouri city has agreed to pay $3.25 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging the town operated an illegal debtors’ prison.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the city of Maplewood unconstitutionally jailed at least 7,000 people.

“I mean we got treated bad,” recalled Frank Williams, one of the lawsuit’s primary plaintiffs. According to ArchCity Defenders, the nonprofit law firm and advocacy group that filed the suit in late 2016, Williams received a ticket from Maplewood police for failing to provide an insurance identification card. He spent two weeks in jail — not because of the citation, but because he could not pay.

The city of Maplewood, Missouri, will pay $3.25 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that for a decade, the town operated an illegal debtors’ prison and unconstitutionally jailed thousands of people. (Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

ArchCity Defenders works to abolish the criminalization of poverty and state violence, particularly in communities of color. They claimed Maplewood’s police department issued 84,906 tickets over a decade, and the municipal court generated revenue of $6.4 million. 

According to court filings, in addition to the roughly 27,000 payouts to those imprisoned or punished between Nov. 1, 2011, and Nov. 8, 2021, the settlement includes more than $1.2 million in attorney fees and litigation expenses.

Since filing the class action lawsuit in November 2016, ArchCity says, court revenue in Maplewood and the number of tickets issued by authorities have dropped significantly — by 64 percent and 70 percent, respectively.

“For years, the Maplewood police wrote thousands of tickets to raise millions of dollars in revenue,” ArchCity’s senior staff lawyer Nathanial Carroll said, the Post-Dispatch reported. “This resulted in poor people, and mostly Black people, being jailed for days at a time until Maplewood had extorted as much money as possible from them.”

“We’re pleased that we’ve reached a settlement,” said ArchCity’s lead attorney, Maureen Hanlon, who assured the resolution “will allow for some compensation and justice” for those who were affected by the city’s actions.

In a statement, Maplewood City Manager Michael Reese said the city is happy to have resolved the issue to benefit the town and its residents. Settlement checks are set to be mailed in June.

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