Redefining Courts’ Response to Nonviolent Offenses
The expert testimony, research, scholarship, and lived experience collected by the Commission revealed the following: In 2013, the municipal court in Ferguson, a city of 21,135 people, issued 32,975 arrest warrants for nonviolent offenses, mostly driving violations (Shapiro, 2014). Similarly, Pine Lawn, another municipality in St. Louis County, has a population of only 3,275 and,…