By Tanisha Pierrette, Senior Research Analyst
This is part 5 of our six-part blog series, Reforming the Revenue Machine: An Advocate’s Guide to to Court Fines and Fees. Each post unpacks findings from Imposing Instability — our national report on how courts use fines and fees to raise revenue — and turns them into tools you can use in campaigns for reform. In this series, you’ll find clear takeaways, examples of what’s happening on the ground, and strategies to strengthen reform efforts in your community.
Missed a post? You can read the full series here.
For many jurisdictions, unpaid fines and fees aren’t just a budget line — it’s a reason to arrest. When someone misses a payment or court date, most courts don’t dive into the root cause. They instead just reach for the same blunt tool: the bench warrant. It’s the easiest way to turn court debt into a criminal matter. Most governments continue to rely heavily on harsh penalties for nonpayment of fines and fees in an attempt to extract as much money as possible from already vulnerable communities. Between FY2018 and FY2022, just 13 states issued over 2.5 million bench warrants related to court debt. Each one gave law enforcement the green light to arrest someone for the crime of living paycheck to paycheck.
Our Current Bench Warrant System Hurts Everyone.
Using police and court resources to chase down missed payments is a costly and ineffective substitute for justice. As if that wasn’t enough, 27 states authorize tacking on an additional fee for issuing a bench warrant. The time and resources it takes to execute a warrant, book someone into jail, and detain them — even briefly — add up quickly. And yet most jurisdictions never calculate the true cost of this process. From the initial arrest to the jail stay, the price tag often exceeds the amount of court debt owed. When jurisdictions don’t factor in these costs, they can’t see the full picture — and the public can’t either.
But here’s what we do know: every bench warrant executed for unpaid fines or fees, or missed court dates diverts law enforcement from more serious public safety concerns. It clogs up court calendars. It fills jail beds with people who aren’t dangerous; they’re just struggling to make ends meet. And it reinforces a cycle where poverty is punished rather than addressed.
Communities end up footing the bill for a system that prioritizes onerous, often futile, collection over fairness and control over compassion. This isn’t just a waste of money — it’s a distortion of public priorities.
Take Colorado, for example. Over the course of five years, their courts issued more than 216,000 bench warrants for failure to appear in court for traffic violations alone. Here’s how the cycle works: if someone gets a traffic ticket and doesn’t pay within 20 days, they’re required to appear in court. Miss that court date, and a warrant is issued for their arrest. What follows can be devastating — not just the arrest itself, but the ripple effects that follow. People risk losing income, especially those working hourly jobs, and in some cases, they lose their jobs entirely. They may already be struggling to pay off the original traffic fine, and now they’re also saddled with booking fees, jail costs, and more time away from work or family. All of this — over a traffic ticket. Issuing bench warrants in these cases isn’t just unnecessary. It’s harmful, shortsighted, and economically counterproductive.
How Advocates Can Take Action
Across the country, advocates are proving that bench warrants for unpaid court debt aren’t inevitable — they’re a choice. By challenging outdated laws and demanding fairer practices, you can help replace punishment with common-sense solutions that actually work.
Step 1: Know Your State Laws
In many states, courts are still allowed to issue bench warrants for failure to pay or failure to appear for a court appearance related to court debt, without ever asking why. In fact, arresting someone without probable cause that they currently have the money but are choosing not to pay violates the U.S. Constitution. If you don’t know whether your state allows these bench warrants, now’s the time to find out.
Step 2: Use Data to Strengthen Your Case
Data has become one of the most powerful tools in this fight. Conducting a cost-benefit analysis that captures how much money is spent chasing down low-level court debt— from court resources to police overtime to jail stays— can reveal inefficiencies and the true cost of collection. This evidence can show that treating poverty as a crime doesn’t just harm people, it squanders public dollars that could be invested into real community needs. Accessing and presenting this data can make a clear case for change.
Step 3: Push for Judicial Accountability and Champion Smarter Alternatives
Advocates across the country are fighting back. They’re challenging outdated laws and pushing for reforms that require judges to ask the most basic question before issuing a bench warrant: Can this person currently afford to pay? Courts are working to reduce barriers that prevent people from appearing in court. In some jurisdictions, they’ve succeeded in replacing warrant-driven enforcement with common-sense approaches. Rather than police snatching them off the streets, they’ve shifted to mailed summonses requiring a person to appear at a later date to discuss reasons for nonpayment, or reminder calls, texts, and mailed notices to ensure people know their court dates and are clear on the reason for the hearing. These changes not only reduce unnecessary arrests but also increase court appearances.
Communities That Have Taken Action
- Colorado (2016): HB16-1311 prohibits courts from issuing a warrant for failure to pay money or to appear when ordered to pay money without first having a hearing inquiring into the person’s ability to pay the costs .
- New Jersey (2023): A5587 vacated all warrants issued solely based on the alleged failure to pay or to appear on a court date set for the sole purpose of payment of statutory or court-ordered fines, fees, costs, or other monetary penalties.
- Texas (2017): SB 1913 requires that, before issuing a bench warrant, courts must conduct an ability to pay hearing to determine whether a person had the ability to pay and did not, or a person fails to appear at the show cause hearing.
- Cook County, Illinois: The Clerk of the Circuit Court, the State’s Attorney’s Office, and the judiciary in Cook County launched a program to recall 17,000 old warrants (those pending for 5-25 years), including warrants related to nonpayment of court debt and failure to appear at court hearings.
- New York, New York: A randomized controlled trial found that text message reminders reduced court nonappearance by 21%, with the most effective messages—those emphasizing consequences of not showing up to court and planning ways to ensure people are able to get to hearings—reducing missed hearings by 26%. When both reminder texts were paired with a follow-up message after missing court, open warrants dropped by 32% within 30 days. The impact was nearly twice as strong for people living in the lowest-income neighborhoods.
Stay tuned to this series for more insight on how to turn the data from Imposing Instability into action. In the final post of this series, we’ll spotlight a range of devastating collateral consequences from unpaid court debt and what advocates can do to dismantle them.