Ferguson Court System Case Study

Problem The Ferguson, Missouri municipal court system has been accused of emphasizing revenue for the Justice Department over the safety of the public. This has lead to regular breaches of the Ferguson citizens’ constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law. The Ferguson’s municipal court judge has been evaluated in part based on how much revenue is generated from the bench. The consequence behind these transgressions is a city that has no respect for their judicial system. The revenue for the Justice Department is found heavily reliant on minor offenses such as traffic violations, failure to comply, or parking infractions. Changes need to be made and the public safety of this community needs to be the main focus of the Justice Department. For the city of Ferguson accusations have been made that if you are poor and black that the courts are less likely to listen to you. These same accusations have been made about other cities as …show more content…
In a 2011 report the city finance director said since 2003 that the municipal judge had been successful in increasing court collections, also the judge stated in the internal 2011 city report that “none of these changes could have taken place without the cooperation of the court clerk, the chief of police, and the prosecutor’s office,”. The federal report state that revenue from enforcing municipal codes, by 2013, had reached $2.46 million. The city had projected that by 2015 fines and fees would make up 23% of the budget. The fines and fees in Ferguson were among the highest of the surrounding municipalities (Michael Martinez, 2015). Changes have to be made with the judicial system this is unjust for the citizen of Ferguson. The funding and revenue for the city cannot consist of rising fines and