ArchCity defenders continue to file lawsuits

Lawsuits filed against St. Louis area municipalities for harmful practices, such as so-called debtors’ prisons, have changed behavior in some areas but there is still work to be done, Blake Strode a staff attorney with the ArchCity Defenders, said after a Monday press conference.

The press conference focused on lawsuits recently filed by the ArchCity Defenders, a nonprofit legal organization, and a swiftly approaching Nov. 24 deadline to file a claim in an ArchCity case against Jennings that reached a $4.7 million settlement in January.

The class action suit claimed individuals were held in jail for failure to pay fines.

So far, only about 20 percent of the roughly 2,000 class members who were jailed in Jennings between 2000 and 2015 have filed a claim, Strode said during the conference at the ArchCity Defenders office in St. Louis.

A total of $3.5 million is on the table for the settlement and will be split between every eligible class member who files a claim, with the amount based on how long each individual stayed in jail. If 100 percent of class members filed a claim, that would equate to about $419 per day, Strode said.

“This not a class action that gives you an $8 coupon for AT&T, this is worth hundreds or thousands of dollars for each of the claimants,” said Brendan Roediger, a Saint Louis University School of Law professor who has worked with the ArchCity Defenders on municipal court issues.

Jamala Rogers, with the Organization for Black Struggle, called it an “important settlement” and said it’s “not really about the money.”

“When I think about the folks who spent time in those jails and why they spent time there, it’s infuriating,” she said. “I think the reason that the organizations have come together to tackle this issue is because it mixes both the legal and community-organizing aspects.”

Rogers stressed that there is “more to come.”

In recent months, the ArchCity Defenders have filed suits against 15 additional municipalities, including Maplewood, Florissant and St. Ann, Strode said at the press conference.

The St. Ann lawsuit, which includes 13 defendant municipalities, alleges a “coordinated scheme of debtors’ prisons throughout North County,” Strode said. The Florissant suit is also a debtors’ prison complaint.

The suit against Maplewood focuses on an alleged “pay to play” scheme in which warrant recall bonds were “used as a paywall to people who could not afford to make payments in order to have payments quashed in the Maplewood municipal court,” Strode said.

While Strode said the ArchCity Defenders continue to hear from people who were jailed because they were “too poor,” he said he has already seen the suits make a difference in some cities.

“I do think it makes a difference, and that’s why it’s so important to hold cities accountable,” he said.