Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey wants Ronnie Pope to contribute to his office鈥檚 slush fund.
Pope is confined in the Southeast Missouri Correctional Center in Charleston on a 12-year sentence for felony robbery and weapons charges. He was part of a crew of men arrested in 2019 for a series of robberies on the MetroLink.
During the time Pope was held in the 50度灰视频 Justice Center, before he pleaded guilty to reduced charges, he was attacked by a guard who 鈥渇orcefully struck and jabbed Mr. Pope multiple times about his body with a broom handle,鈥 according to court records.
The attack was caught on video. Pope filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court that was eventually settled. In December, Pope鈥檚 attorney sent him a $12,000 check from the settlement to be deposited into Pope鈥檚 corrections account.
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A couple of weeks later, Bailey鈥檚 office filed a lawsuit in Cole County, seeking to obtain the check to pay for the cost of Pope鈥檚 incarceration. The lawsuit was filed under the Missouri Incarceration Reimbursement Act, which allows the attorney general to sue incarcerated people under certain circumstances. The goal is to garnish income to pay for the time spent behind bars. It鈥檚 part of the nation鈥檚 patchwork of 鈥減ay-to-stay鈥 laws that often exacerbate the poverty of defendants.
Every state but two 鈥 Nevada and Connecticut 鈥 have such laws. Most, like Missouri鈥檚, were passed in the late 1980s, when a surge of 鈥渢ough-on-crime鈥 laws fueled a massive rise in jail populations and lawmakers were looking for new sources to help pay for new prisons.
But the laws have not fulfilled their promise. In the past four years, for instance, Missouri鈥檚 law has not produced more than about $500,000 in the attorney general鈥檚 slush fund, which gets 20% of the money collected from people in state prisons. Most of the people targeted 鈥 like Pope 鈥 are only sued because of a small windfall.
So it was when former Attorney General William Webster first used the law in 1990 to collect money from state detainees who had won settlements after being attacked by prison guards. In one of those cases, however, the federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that for the state to take settlement money won by someone through a federal lawsuit. The court argued that people in state prison would have no avenue to be compensated should their civil rights be violated.
鈥淚f the state were permitted to seize the ... damage awards prisoners received for prison employees鈥 conduct, the prisoners would have no motive to bring such suits and the State and its employees would have no inducement to comply with federal law,鈥 the appeals court wrote in 1990.
But that case likely doesn鈥檛 apply to Pope because he was attacked in a city jail, not a state prison, says Washington University law professor Peter Joy.
Still, Joy says, Pope can make a 鈥済ood argument鈥 that Bailey鈥檚 lawsuit undermines federal civil rights law.
If Pope is to make that argument, he鈥檒l do so without an attorney.
That鈥檚 because in reimbursement lawsuits, the public defender鈥檚 office 鈥 which represented Pope in his criminal case 鈥 can鈥檛 intervene. Pope has filed a handwritten letter with the court asking that his settlement be protected and 鈥渘on-recoverable.鈥
鈥淚 never own anything in my life,鈥 Pope told the court.
If successful, Bailey鈥檚 lawsuit would make sure that remains the case.
Lisa Foster, a former California judge who is co-director of the nonprofit , finds such lawsuits 鈥渞eally offensive.鈥
鈥淯nfortunately, Missouri is not alone in doing this,鈥 Foster says. 鈥淔or some reason, there seems to be an uptick in these. I don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 state attorneys general talking to each other, or something else.鈥
The lawsuits often go unnoticed because they target people who committed serious crimes, who have no family to advocate for them, and who are otherwise not empathetic. The system, though, envisions people like Pope some day returning to live in their communities. And the state makes their ability to get housing, jobs and health care much more difficult when it tries to collect costs related to their stays in jail.
鈥淧rison is not a Motel 6,鈥 Foster says. 鈥淵ou shouldn鈥檛 be paying for the privilege of being locked up.鈥
Bailey, who didn鈥檛 respond to a request for an interview, apparently disagrees. He has filed two other lawsuits this year seeking reimbursement from Missouri men. Both of those men received small court settlements from insurance proceeds following the deaths of their mothers. One of them, Daniel Wayne Wallace, wrote a letter to the court asking to block Bailey鈥檚 action.
鈥淚t is the only time I will receive any large amount of money ever,鈥 Wallace wrote about the check for about $12,000 he received after his mom died.
The money, he said, is supposed to help him rebuild his life when he leaves prison: 鈥淚 fully intend on fighting tooth and nail in court to stop this travesty of justice.鈥
As a columnist for the 50度灰视频, Tony Messenger has spent years in county and municipal courthouses documenting how poor Americans are convicted of minor crimes and then saddled with exorbitant fines and fees. If they are unable to pay, they are often sent to prison, where they are then charged a pay-to-stay bill, in a cycle that soon creates a mountain of debt that can take years to pay off. These insidious penalties are used to raise money for broken local and state budgets, often overseen by for-profit companies, and it is one of the central issues of the criminal justice reform movement. In 鈥淧rofit and Punishment,鈥 Messenger has written a call to arms, exposing an injustice that is agonizing and infuriating in its mundane cruelty.
50度灰视频 Interim Public Safety Director Dan Isom talks to the media about the updates made to the 50度灰视频 city Justice Center before providing a tour of the third floor of the jail on Wednesday, May 4, 2022.
Video by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com