# @thekansascitystar on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CrYSpE6Ja2q
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/18810606-thekansascitystar-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/01c7bd7099.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-04-23T13:00:05.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Kansas City Star (@thekansascitystar) — https://gondola.cc/thekansascitystar

## Caption

Ryan Everson had problems. His family agrees on that. But they also agree that he loved his kids.

That’s why they think it was senseless for Clay County to put him in jail for failing to pay $50 child support installments he couldn’t afford, and why they don’t understand how he ended up dead in that jail at the age of 42.

Everson had been behind bars 10 days when he was found unresponsive in his cell on Jan. 23. The sheriff’s office said he died by suicide. But Everson’s loved ones question why he was left alone after having seizures and why they got differing accounts from county officials about his death.

The family says putting Everson in jail wasn’t going to help him become a better father. Instead, the county’s actions added another death to a local jail that’s seen multiple in recent years.

Many counties across Missouri, including Jackson County, have moved away from charging people for failing to make child support payments, instead pursuing support through civil processes.

But Clay County prosecutors have continued to zealously use criminal courts to go after parents.

It’s just one way Missouri’s criminal justice system disproportionately harms the poor. Held for a crime of poverty — not violence — Everson’s bond was set at a price he could not pay. And partly because he could not afford an attorney and did not get a public defender to argue for the county to follow state guidelines and release him on a lower bond, he stayed in jail until he died.

Read the full story at the link in our bio. 

📸: WagsPhoto

#KansasCity #Missouri #ClayCounty #ChildSupport #ClayCountyJail

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 862
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 70

## Tags

claycounty, missouri, claycountyjail, kansascity, childsupport

---
Copyright (c) Gondola