How the May 16 St. Louis tornado affected the criminal legal system – STLPR

Report on the Socio-Judicial Impacts of the May 16th Tornado in St. Louis

Executive Summary

On May 16, an EF3 tornado caused significant destruction across the St. Louis area. While physical court infrastructure remained intact, the event severely impacted individuals within the criminal legal system, including defendants, attorneys, and court personnel. This report analyzes the aftermath through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting the event’s adverse effects on justice, social equity, and community resilience. The findings underscore challenges to achieving SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).

Disruption to Justice Systems and Institutions (SDG 16)

The tornado’s impact on human capital created significant disruptions to the administration of justice, testing the resilience and equity of legal institutions as outlined in SDG 16.

• Operational Interruptions: Although court buildings were unharmed, widespread personal property damage among legal professionals and defendants necessitated the rescheduling of numerous cases.
• Inconsistent Judicial Response: The response from the judiciary to defendants impacted by the storm was inconsistent. While some judges in St. Louis County were reportedly lenient, others in the city issued immediate violations and arrest warrants for non-compliance with pretrial conditions (e.g., missed curfews or uncharged GPS monitors) that were a direct result of the disaster.
• Access to Justice: This mixed response created barriers to justice for vulnerable individuals, undermining the SDG 16 goal of ensuring equal access to justice for all and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels. Public defenders faced challenges in contacting clients and mitigating the legal consequences of disaster-induced non-compliance.

Exacerbation of Poverty and Inequality (SDG 1 & SDG 10)

The disaster disproportionately affected economically disadvantaged populations, particularly those involved in the criminal justice system, setting back progress on SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

1. Prioritization of Basic Needs: Affected individuals were forced to choose between addressing urgent legal matters and securing fundamental needs like family safety and shelter. This dilemma often resulted in legal obligations being neglected in favor of survival.
2. Financial Hardship: The financial strain was acute. One defendant had to choose between paying for required GPS monitoring and relocating from a storm-damaged home, illustrating how disaster recovery costs can conflict with legal requirements and deepen poverty.
3. Vulnerability of Pretrial Defendants: The Bail Project reported that approximately 25% of its clients were impacted by the storm, highlighting the acute vulnerability of this demographic.
4. Compounded Disadvantage: Individuals with prior felony convictions faced extreme difficulty in securing new housing. The case of LaShay Wallis, who struggled for months to find a landlord willing to rent to her, exemplifies how the disaster amplified existing systemic inequalities, directly challenging the objectives of SDG 10.

Challenges to Community Resilience and Housing (SDG 11 & SDG 13)

The tornado, an extreme weather event of the type addressed by SDG 13 (Climate Action), severely compromised the region’s housing infrastructure and community resilience, which are central to SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).

• Housing Destruction: The destruction of a significant amount of housing stock left many individuals homeless and strained the capacity of social service agencies, many of which were also repairing their own damages.
• Impact on Pretrial Release: The housing crisis directly impeded the justice process. Public defenders found it more difficult to secure pretrial release for clients, as stable family homes that would have served as approved residences no longer existed.
• Need for Resilient Infrastructure: The event underscores the critical need for cities to develop resilient housing and social support systems capable of withstanding climate-related shocks to ensure communities remain safe, inclusive, and sustainable as per SDG 11.

Analysis of Sustainable Development Goals in the Article

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

1. SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
   • The article highlights how the tornado’s impact exacerbates existing inequalities. Individuals with prior criminal convictions, like LaShay Wallis, face significantly greater barriers to securing new housing compared to others. The text states her two nonviolent felonies “make finding housing tricky even in the best of times,” a problem magnified by the disaster. This points to an inequality of outcome for a specific vulnerable group.
2. SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
   • This goal is central to the article, which describes the aftermath of a natural disaster in an urban area (St. Louis). It directly addresses the destruction of housing (“suffered severe damage,” “so much housing that was destroyed”) and the impact on the city’s residents and infrastructure. The focus is on the community’s vulnerability and resilience in the face of a disaster.
3. SDG 13: Climate Action
   • The article discusses the impact of an “EF3 tornado,” which is an extreme weather event. While not explicitly linking it to climate change, SDG 13 focuses on strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters. The community’s struggle to cope and the varied institutional responses demonstrate the challenges related to disaster resilience.
4. SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
   • A significant portion of the article focuses on the criminal legal system’s response to the disaster. It details how the tornado affected defendants’ ability to comply with court requirements, leading to potential legal repercussions. The “mixed” and inconsistent response from judges and the overwhelming of social service agencies illustrate challenges in maintaining effective and accountable institutions that can ensure equal access to justice during a crisis.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

1. Target 11.1: Ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing.
   • The article directly relates to this target by describing how the tornado destroyed homes, leaving people without adequate and safe housing. The story of LaShay Wallis, who had to stay in shelters while searching for a new place to live for months, exemplifies the challenge of accessing housing after the disaster.
2. Target 11.5: Significantly reduce the number of deaths and people affected by disasters, with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations.
   • The article mentions the tornado left “destruction and death” and that “hundreds of people” were affected. It specifically focuses on a vulnerable population: individuals involved in the criminal legal system (“attorneys, defendants, judges and court personnel”). The narrative shows how these individuals were disproportionately impacted, having to choose between personal safety and legal obligations.
3. Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters.
   • The article illustrates a lack of institutional resilience and adaptive capacity. The fact that social service agencies were “overwhelmed” and the courts had an inconsistent (“mixed”) response shows that the system struggled to adapt its procedures to support affected individuals effectively after the extreme weather event.
4. Target 16.3: Promote the rule of law and ensure equal access to justice for all.
   • Access to justice was compromised for many defendants. The article explains that the disaster forced them to prioritize family safety over legal requirements like charging a GPS device. This led to violations and potential arrest warrants, creating a barrier to fair legal proceedings. The inconsistent judicial response (“some judges were willing to hear… others immediately issued a violation”) further undermines the principle of equal access to justice.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

1. Indicator for Target 11.1: Proportion of population left homeless or in inadequate housing after a disaster.
   • The article implies this indicator by describing widespread housing damage. It notes that “so much housing that was destroyed that the options available for a lot of our clients… didn’t exist anymore.” LaShay Wallis’s story of losing her home and spending months in shelters before finding a new apartment provides a qualitative measure of this impact.
2. Indicator for Target 11.5: Number of people affected by the disaster.
   • The article provides data points for this indicator. It states that “hundreds of people associated with the criminal legal system” were impacted and, more specifically, “About a quarter of the clients helped by the Bail Project through June had been affected by the storm.” This suggests a measurable subset of the affected population.
3. Indicator for Target 16.3: Number of arrest warrants issued for non-compliance with pretrial conditions due to disaster-related issues.
   • This is implied when the article states that failure to comply with court requirements can “prompt a judge to issue an arrest warrant.” It also mentions that the public defender’s office “worked to get clients who had been picked up on those warrants back out of jail.” Tracking the number of such warrants would measure the justice system’s failure to adapt and its negative impact on defendants.
4. Indicator for Target 10.3: Disparity in time to secure stable housing post-disaster between the general population and individuals with criminal records.
   • The article implies this indicator through the experience of LaShay Wallis. Her struggle to find a landlord willing to rent to her because of a decade-old felony conviction, a process that took from May to July, suggests that this disparity could be measured to track inequality of outcome.

4. Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: stlpr.org