After her time in jail, Bergen got the bill: more than $15,900. It is what many Missouri counties call a “board bill.” Get convicted of a crime and you pay about $50 a day for your confinement, regardless of the charge. Meanwhile, in some cases, the county also bills the state.

Don’t have the money? Baird schedules you for a payment review hearing, and another, and another, all the while threatening you with more jail if you don’t pay.

The underfunded Missouri State Public Defender’s office is trying to stop this practice, pushing cases in all three appeals courts in the state, arguing the practice is akin to the state operating illegal debtors prisons.

The day before her hearing, Bergen had $60 in her pocket. She rented a room for a week in Rolla, not sure where she’d be after her day in court.

“Judge Baird threatened me with jail if I didn’t make a substantial payment,” she told me. She planned to spend the rest of the day trying to borrow some more money, to be able to make a $100 payment. “Three figures seems more substantial to me. I’m freaking out. I really am afraid she’s going to put me back in jail.”