St. Louis suburb settles 'debtors' prison' lawsuit

Source: Associated Press

St. Louis suburb settles ‘debtors’ prison’ lawsuit

By JIM SALTER
April 11, 2023

A Missouri town will pay $3.25 million to settle a so-called debtors’ prison lawsuit over allegations that thousands of people were unconstitutionally jailed and forced to pay fines and fees that provided millions of dollars for the town’s coffers.

The town of Maplewood agreed last week to the settlement of the federal class-action lawsuit. Maplewood was among several St. Louis County towns whose policing and court practices fell under scrutiny after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson in 2014.

The Maplewood lawsuit, filed in 2016, alleges unlawful policing and economic injustice. The settlement money will be distributed among more than 7,000 people who were jailed and more than 20,000 who paid fines and fees from Nov. 1, 2011, through Nov. 18, 2021.

The suit accuses Maplewood of routinely violating constitutional rights through a “predatory scheme” of unconstitutional jailing, often for minor traffic offenses, to extract fines and fees.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/debtors-prison-lawsuit-maplewood-missouri-9da7a93d704939244cac610d302eea9a