Thread by @BigElad

A federal judge ordered the City of St. Louis to stop holding people in jail just because they're poor. Our Attorney General is opposing that order.

Another reason why we need a new Attorney General. A thread:

stltoday.com/news/local/cri…

Pre-trial detainees have not been convicted of anything. Far too often, these folks sit in jail for many months, only to see their cases dismissed at the last moment. They lose months of their lives and are convicted of nothing just because they can't afford bond.

I represented an 18-year-old who lost 7 months of her life just like that for a crime she did not commit.

In our justice system, you're supposed to have the opportunity to ask for your bond to be reduced. You're not supposed to be held because you're poor.

Not supposed to.

When people came to court - or were heard over televised conference - to ask for their bond to be reduced because they didn't have money, the court would spend maybe a minute on their cases.

At times, sheriff's deputies would tell these detainees to not say a word, hurry up, and get through the hearing. The bond reduction hearing forms were often incomplete. The court was not doing its job, and people were punished for being poor.

The federal judge rightfully said this practice is unconstitutional and gave the judges 7 days to fix it.

Our Attorney General represents the judges. He could have told them to do their jobs. He could have chosen to stop punishing poor people in our state.

Instead, he went back to court and provided some excuse for why he can't get it done.

The judge very much disagreed.

We have 30 judges in St. Louis City, and we have a bit over 1100 inmates. Under the current system where pre-trial detainees receive about a minute-long hearing, judges could hear all of their cases in 36 minutes.

Give pre-trial detainees the opportunity to speak and demonstrate that they are being held just because they're poor - say 5 minutes per person - and the court would be done reviewing everyone in 3 hours. Double that time and you're still done in a day with a 2-hour lunch break.

The court doesn't need a week to review everyone. It needs less than a day. So a couple of days to inform the necessary people, a day of planning, a day of hearings, an extra day of hearings just in case, and you're still not at 7 days.

But instead of ensuring our justice system works, our Attorney General wants to spend time in court keeping it broken.

We're the ones paying for it.

We're paying for the Attorney General to go to court with ridiculous excuses. We're paying for our government holding people in jail when they shouldn't be there. We're paying for unnecessary jail housing.

We're paying when we put workers in jail who then lose their jobs and parents who then can't care for their kids. We're paying when we subject our neighbors to the terrible conditions in the Workhouse and see them come out broken shells of themselves.

We're paying when our state doesn't ensure we all have opportunity.

And on the same day our Attorney General did all of this, he was scheduled to present to a group of lawyers to tout his support for public defenders. The same public defenders he has fought against in court, the same ones opposing his efforts right now.

Imagine if the words of our Attorney General meant something. Imagine if we had an Attorney General committed to fixing these problems, who feels the sense of urgency that justice demands.

Imagine if we had a system that worked, where people weren't punished for being poor, where folks of all backgrounds were treated equally under the law. Imagine what our state could look like if we spent more money on building our communities and less on breaking them apart.

Stop imagining. It's time for us to do it.

eladgross.org/get-involved