Over the past 20 years, North Carolina has increased its reliance on fines and fees as a revenue source. At the same time, the legislature has implemented regressive tax policies that benefit wealthier residents while increasing court fines and fees that disproportionately harm poorer North Carolinians. Low-income individuals often face difficult choices between paying court debt or essential needs like food, housing, and healthcare.
Though judges in North Carolina have the authority to modify or waive fines or fees, less than 1 percent of monetary obligations are modified and less than 7 percent are waived. By creating burdensome reporting requirements and impractical administrative hurdles, North Carolina’s General Assembly has effectively discouraged judicial discretion and increased the likelihood that individuals will be detained over court debt.
The Wilson Center report reveals that, despite the increased reliance and devastating impacts on the state’s most economically vulnerable, court fines and fees generate only 0.3 percent of North Carolina’s state revenue. The report also outlines policy recommendations for North Carolina legislators.
You can read the full text here.
Key findings:
- Over 650,000 people in North Carolina, or 1 in 12 adults, currently have unpaid criminal court debt.
- Almost 400,000 people in North Carolina have active driver’s license suspensions because of unpaid court debt.
- When a person is arrested and detained for failing to pay their fines or fees, their resulting detention often costs North Carolina thousands more than the person owes. For example, Mecklenburg County spent $40,000 jailing 246 people with unpaid debt in order to collect only $33,476.
Recommendations:
- Eliminate all fees.
- Require judges to hold ability-to-pay hearings before imposing fines and fees regardless of whether a person files form CR-415 to request relief.
- Forgive outstanding court debt
- Do not arrest people for unpaid court debt.
- Stop suspending driver’s licences for failure to appear or failure to pay.
- Reinstate suspended licenses.
- Do not require reporting on specific judges who waive fees.
- Collect data on fines and fees imposed for all convictions, including the total amount imposed and collected.