In a city with 14 percent unemployment and where more than 20 percent of residents live below poverty, criminal fines and court fees levied on the poor are Ferguson’s second largest source of revenue. That’s according to a new white paper from St. Louis-based indigent defense group, ArchCity Defenders. "I’ll be real honest, I didn’t believe them," at first, executive director Thomas Harvey tells the Daily Beast about incessant client complaints of being targeted because they were black and poor. But findings from a yearlong court-watching program changed Harvey’s mind–and they’re drawing attention to an ongoing national problem of municipalities using local courts to generate revenue from the poor instead of dispensing justice.
The debt-to-prison pipeline–through traffic violations, misdemeanors and arcane courthouse rules and financial penalties–is a major cause of antagonism between Ferguson residents and local police. Criminal debt cripples families and communities after all, and not only the individual receiving the warrant.