JEFFERSON CITY — Ronnie Pope’s prison bank account is half full.
Or it’s half empty.
It depends on your perspective.
On Tuesday, Cole County Circuit Judge Chris Limbaugh ruled against Pope in a civil case brought by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. The case involves Pope’s money. Under the Missouri Incarceration Reimbursement Act (MIRA), the attorney general can file a suit to seize the assets of a Missouri inmate. The idea is to help recoup the costs of imprisonment.
The law, on the books since 1988, has been used by attorneys general to seize money from inmates, even though it recovers a few hundred thousand dollars a year — a tiny fraction of the Department of Corrections budget. Most states have similar statutes, known as “pay-to-stay†laws. Illinois and New Hampshire repealed their versions of the law in 2019.
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Some folks in prison come into money now and then, such as when a parent dies or a family member sells property. Bailey tries to seize those dollars, and the law mostly lets him do it.
In Pope’s case, the attorney general tried to take away most of a $12,000 settlement Pope earned in a federal civil rights lawsuit. His suit stemmed from being assaulted by a guard in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ City Justice Center. Pope was being held there while awaiting trial on the robbery charge that led to his 12-year prison sentence.
This week, Limbaugh ruled that Bailey can take only half of the money. At the urging of Columbia attorney Irene Karns, who is representing Pope free of charge, Limbaugh exercised his discretion to let Pope keep some of the money, presumably so he’ll have a jumpstart on rebuilding his life when he gets out of prison.
Most prisoners who are sued under the law don’t have attorneys. There is no Sixth Amendment right to an attorney in such cases because they are civil, not criminal. So in many instances, the inmate doesn’t have an attorney and can’t attend hearings (because they’re in prison), opening the door for the state to seize the money.
That’s what would have happened to Pope, except Karns read my column about his case and asked if she could represent him. The same is true for Tonya Honkomp, Daniel Wayne Wallace and Brian Owens. They are being represented by Clayton attorney Bevis Schock and Illinois attorney Dave Nelson, who are seeking to declare the MIRA law unconstitutional, in part because there is little or no due process for many inmates.
Take Michael Manning. He’s in prison on drug charges. When some relatives died and left him about $68,000 in 2023, Bailey’s office filed a lawsuit to seize the money. Manning wrote Limbaugh to ask for an attorney and for the court stop the state from taking his money.
“I have no control over any claims at this time,†Manning wrote from the Maryville Treatment Center, a prison that offers drug addiction treatment.
The court ignored his plea. But luckily for Manning, the money had been put in a trust that is supervised by a bank. The bank’s attorneys entered the case. They argued that Bailey, and the state, had no legal right to the money because it wasn’t officially in Manning’s possession. The bank’s lawyers won.
It’s amazing how different cases can look when attorneys are involved.
So it was for Daniel Toman in 2018. Former Attorney General Josh Hawley that year tried to seize Toman’s assets, including his primary source of income: workers compensation payments from a job injury. Toman asked Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green for permission to hire an attorney from the money Hawley was trying to seize.
Green agreed. Toman hired Michael Shipley of Kansas City, who filed a motion to explain that Toman was using the workers compensation payments to stay current on child support obligations while in prison.
Green ruled in favor of Toman and didn’t let the state seize the money.
And therein lies the dilemma with the law.
How many people like Pope and Manning and Toman lose money they’ll need to rebuild their lives, or support their families, because a Missouri law allows judges and attorneys general to turn their backs on common sense?
Limbaugh exercised some of that common sense this week in letting Pope keep half of his money, but the result still feels about half empty.
In their cases, Schock and Nelson will soon argue that the entire law should be tossed aside as a gross violation of the Constitution. The judge will have another chance to decide whether people in prison have any rights at all.