Florissant to Pay $2.89M to Settle Debtors' Prison Lawsuit

Another St. Louis area municipality will pay big bucks to settle claims it ran a "debtors prison" under a preliminary settlement approved in federal court this week.

This time, it's Florissant in the hot seat. The nonprofit law firm ArchCity Defenders sued the north county municipality in 2016, alleging it illegally jailed more than 85,000 people over a period of 11 years. Their crime? An inability to pay fines and fees for traffic violations and other low-level offenses.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Rodney Holmes signed off on the preliminary terms of the class action settlement on Tuesday. A final approval hearing is now set for this May.

Arch City notes that money will be distributed based on the number of hours spent in the Florissant jail — those held for more time will get more money. In a press release, the law firm continues, "The settlement also requires Florissant to do four things: permanently forgive all unpaid fees from traffic violations between October 31, 2011 and December 31, 2019, which ArchCity Defenders estimates to be several hundred thousand dollars in debt forgiveness; eliminate the use of 'bond schedules'; provide all arrested persons with unconditional access to indigency forms and, unless released, a timely indigency hearing no later than 24 hours after the arrested person is booked; and uphold the right to counsel for individuals held in jail and brought before the municipal judge."

With this settlement, ArchCity notes that it will have settled all but one of its local debtors' prison lawsuits — which include suits against Jennings, Normandy, Edmundson, Maplewood and St. Ann. Damages have totaled $16 million.

The only municipality that has yet to settle the claims is the one whose actions brought national attention to this type of predatory policing: Ferguson. Arch City and its cohorts filed that suit in 2015. It remains active in federal court.

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