FCCCourtWatch

an abolitionist, volunteer-powered program watching and reporting on bail hearings in STL's 22nd Judicial Circuit to hold the courts accountable to the people

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

🚨CHECK OUT OUR NEW REPORT🚨

‘The Process is the Punishment’ is a 6-month analysis of over 3,000 hearings for more than 1,700 people in St. Louis City Courts and it’s devastating impacts on disproportionately Black, Disabled, and poor.

Read more here:

https://t.co/1cy7dnnGPZ

[alccourtwatch @ALCCourtWatch]

@CourtWatchNYC joins the demand to hold its city judges accountable! As in PA, judges make critical decisions abt peoples lives! Yet they are often under evaluated or given no scrutiny, allowing unfit & cruel judges to serve for decades.
#letswatchcourt
https://t.co/MsuGUpw7iI

[Blake Strode @BlakeStrode1]

I didn't realize anyone was still taking this process seriously. Or pretending to.
https://t.co/jT15886AmZ

[Amy Malinowski @AmyEAtty]

@CourtWatchSTL The report also notes the City has no policy against the use of mace on ppl w certain medical conditions. They provide no accommodations.

[Amy Malinowski @AmyEAtty]

Important @CourtWatchSTL report below highlighting disparate impact carceral system has on ppl w disabilities - here's just a snapshot:

[Drapetomaniac #TilWeAllFree ❤️🖤💚✊🏾 @WhurDeyDoDatAt]

What is going on right now in @22ndCircuitSTL bond hearings may not be illegal - according to this oppressive systems laws - but it's definitely disturbing, and egregious. Please support and volunteer with @CourtWatchSTL, you are needed!

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

Instead of following the status quo @22ndCircuitSTL could continue to expand supportive release instead of trapping people in a deadly jail for almost a year on average with racist, classist, and ableist pretrial practices.

Read our report here:

https://t.co/1cy7dnnGPZ

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

As stated in our findings, the @22ndCircuitSTL overwhelmingly uses ‘No Bond’determinations regardless of charge.

Leaving no option for people to be released, legally innocent. 1,140 ppl were trapped in the deadly St. Louis City Justice Center.

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

Comprehensive bail reform, like in changes in Harris County Texas has proven to increase return to court and promote overall public safety in its city.

https://t.co/wyF0ZOoIM9

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

82% of the accused were Black even though the city is less than 50% Black. The system is displaying the same old racist tactics.

You can read more of our report at:

https://t.co/1cy7dnnGPZ

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

The legal system claims to seek justice but the @22ndCircuitSTL is clearly obsessed surveillance, control and growing its own power by suppressing and caging lives of Black, poor and disabled people.

The city’s pretrial system drives long pretrial stays. Which is violent.

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

From July 2022 to July 2023 we analyzed over 3,000 bail hearings. to no surprise the @stlcao who is clearly appealing to a ‘law and order’ regime advocated for ‘No Bond’ 88% of the time.

[Freedom Community Center @FCCStLouis]

Powerful piece about from our Executive Director @MikeAMilton314 and comrad Janis Mensah about the reality of The St. Louis City Justice Center.

https://t.co/EOzJurBCn4

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

Pretrial release is correlated with lower plea rates and a higher likelihood of one's case being dismissed. Courts weaponize underrepresentation to disenfranchise the accused. 82% of people only had access to an attorney who learned about their case minutes before their hearing.

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

These disparities overwhelmingly impacted Black people in our City who comprised 82% of the people we saw in court last month despite making up less than half of the City's population.

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

While the overall no bond rate was 49%, we saw that people who expressed housing or mental health needs fared significantly worse than their counterparts who did not. Jail only exacerbates such needs. Despite that fact (or, perhaps, bc of it) they were still denied their freedom.

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

Last month, the Circuit Attorney's Office recommended in 88% of hearings that people remain incarcerated. 89 more people would have been incarcerated if judge's followed their recommendations. It is common in election years for prosecutor's to push for harsher punishments.

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

65% of those who were granted pretrial release were confined by EM, a form of electronic surveillance that severely limits one's ability to access basic resources. Along with Shotspotter and red-light cameras, EM is another technology used to criminalize Black neighborhoods.

[FCCCourtWatch @CourtWatchSTL]

The start of the new year brought with it the appointment of two new bail judges, Judges Hays and Dierker. They wasted no time in falling back into the old patterns of their predecessors, denying bond to more people (49%) than they released.