Archcity Defenders

ArchCity Defenders (ACD) is a holistic legal advocacy organization that combats the criminalization of poverty and state violence, especially in communities of color. ACD’s foundation of civil and criminal legal representation, social services, impact litigation, policy and media advocacy, and community collaboration achieves and inspires justice and equitable outcomes for people throughout the St. Louis region and beyond. ArchCity Defenders envisions a society liberated from systems of oppression where the promise of justice and racial equity is realized; communities where our approach to public safety prioritizes investment in well-being, health, and transformation without relying on criminalization and incarceration; and people living freely in their communities, thriving regardless of their race or income. In 2009, Thomas Harvey, Michael-John Voss, and John McAnnar co-founded ArchCity Defenders with a goal to prevent and end homelessness by providing free legal services to the poor and those experiencing homelessness. The model of holistic legal advocacy was pioneered by the Bronx Defenders in New York, and includes providing civil and criminal legal services as well as connecting clients to social services all under one roof. To date, we have filed 55 (and counting) civil rights lawsuits challenging policies and practices—predatory policing, debtors’ prisons, illegal housing practices, cash bail, jail conditions—that disproportionately impact Black people throughout the region. Our successes include ending debtors’ prisons in municipalities like Jennings and Ferguson where residents were targeted for decades on the basis of poverty and race by police and courts. Municipalities throughout the region have reduced their unlawful and predatory practices and we have recovered $10 million in damages for those thousands impacted by revenue-based policing and racial profiling.