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She needed to re-engage with her three children. Take her 12-year-old daughter to school. Deal with insurance claims after the death of her mother. Figure out what sort of job she could get as a felon with multiple drug charges on her record.

Oh, and money that could help her get back on her feet — $18,000 she received (while in the Chillicothe Correctional Center) from her mother’s life insurance policy? She can’t access it.

That’s because last year, under the Missouri Incarceration Reimbursement Act, Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office sued Noel to seize the money. The cruel law, on the books since the late 1980s, lets the state recoup a pittance of the cost of incarceration but leaves inmates broke after they leave prison and try to reenter society.

Noel lives in Iron County, about 90 minutes south of St. Louis, on the farm where she grew up. Her mom, Cheryl Jones, left her the farm after she lost a battle with cancer at age 66. Noel couldn’t attend the funeral. She was in rehab in state prison.

“I’m trying to figure out what to do about everything,� she told me this week. “I just got out and I don’t know where to start.�

On Wednesday, I texted her with good news: the Missouri Legislature voted to repeal the MIRA law. It happened with little fanfare, as the repeal was attached to the 111-page crime bill that included a state takeover of St. Louis police, the controversial topic that drew the most attention. The repeal was sponsored by state Rep. Tara Peters, R-Rolla.

If the repeal goes into effect in August, as expected, no more Missouri inmates will have to face the travesty that Noel did while behind bars — getting a letter from the state telling her the little money she had was about to vanish.

Because Noel was in rehab at the time, doing all the things a judge asked her to do to overcome addiction, she had little communication with the outside world.

“It’s not like general population. We don’t get to use the phone regularly. There are lots of restrictions,� Noel says. “We have programming from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. I was in a fog, losing my mom and trying to focus on treatment. I was dealing with grief and shame and guilt, and having to deal with it behind bars. It was very heavy.�

The weight of that burden was reduced only by the knowledge that when she got out, she had a bit of savings to help her and her three kids.

“For being in prison and knowing I was going home to my mom’s house, knowing that it was there, that little nest egg, made the burden a little lighter,� Noel says.

Then she got the paperwork that the state was taking the money away. She had no lawyer. Normally she would have called her mom for advice. That was no longer possible.

“It gave me doubt where I had so much confidence,� Noel says. “It’s scary to come home and try to be a good mother and live sober recovery, and then they kick your feet out from under you.�

On Tuesday, she’ll drive to Jefferson City and sit in a courtroom, waiting for her name to be called. Bevis Schock will be there. He’s the Clayton attorney who started taking MIRA cases last year after reading about them in my columns.

Among his other clients are Tonya Honkomp, who is still in the prison Noel just left. Honkomp had a baby there last fall and is hoping to regain money Bailey seized from her. The money was supposed to help set up her life when she is released later this spring. She’s training to be a certified nurse’s aide. But she’s worried about an apartment, transportation and the expenses that come with raising a newborn.

Schock, who testified before the legislature in favor of the MIRA repeal, plans to ask Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh to put all active MIRA cases on hold. He had planned to ask the Missouri Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional. That won’t be necessary anymore.

“The cause of protecting these vulnerable people is one that has political appeal,� Schock says.

Indeed, it does. This is the second time in six years that Missouri lawmakers have passed a bill that reduces the criminalization of poverty. In 2019, they made it illegal to put Missourians back in jail if they couldn’t afford to pay a “board bill,� a daily fee many county jails charge inmates.

Now, Missouri lawmakers have declared again that “pay-to-stay� laws, which overwhelmingly affect poor people, have no place in the state. Illinois and New Hampshire have also repealed, or substantially repealed, laws similar to MIRA. The laws were passed during the “tough-on-crime� era in the 1980s, without regard for the consequences on people who would return to their communities after serving their time.

“Missouri joins a growing list of states that have taken steps to end fees and onerous collections practices across the criminal legal system,� said Priya Sarathy Jones, co-executive director of , a nonprofit that fights against the criminalization of poverty. “This momentum is a testament to the bipartisan appeal of fee-repeal reforms, the growing recognition of the harms of these policies, and the incredible strength that the fines and fees reform movement has built in the past decade.�

For Noel, the legislature’s action leaves her hopeful, even as she wonders what comes next.

“I had to finally grow up at 40 years old, and I feel so green at it,� she says. “Until this court case is over, I’m kind of at a standstill.�