and we are joined by allison and herbert nelson. of the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuits. allison and herbert nelson are siblings. we welcome you all to democracy now! why don't we begin with michael-john voss. explain how the system works. >> what we have in st. louis is a modern debtors prison. basically, our study committee referred to earlier, showed that individuals who are african-american are disproportionately targeted by police and the municipalities as well as their also exploited because of their financial inability to pay certain fines related to that traffic stop or violation. an individual is then forced to pay an exorbitant amount of money relative to the charge they're facing. then they are, if they don't have the ability to pay, or no inquiries made to that ability or not and warrant is issued for their west -- their arrest in they become incarcerated sometimes for days or weeks without any looking into the financial ability to pay and without even having a clear sense of whether or not they have any sort of