#62: Fighting the Criminalization of Poverty
After riots erupted Ferguson in 2014, investigations revealed that the entire criminal justice system in St. Louis County – not just the police department – levied massive amounts of fines and fees on its poorest citizens in order to fund itself. It was a wake-up call, but one organization had been in place working on these issues for five years.
Thomas Harvey is one of the co-founders and the executive director of the Arch City Defenders, an organization he helped build to take on systemic injustices and defend those who couldn’t get help elsewhere.