“Debtor Prison” Suit Filed, After Tiny Town Collected Millions In Fines and Fees

Arnold & Porter, in an alliance with public interest law firm ArchCity Defenders, has sued the town of Edmondson, a small town near St. Louis Lambert International Airport. As reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the lawsuit maintains that the town, with a population of 832 people, raised $2.2 million via its municipal court over a period of four years, by “over-policing.” In one of those years, according to the plaintiffs, the town received more than a third of its general revenue from fines and fees. This class action is part of a larger movement to address what’s been called the criminalization of poverty, as summarized in this article from a justice reform organization called The Appeal.