Disenfranchised by Debt
This report discusses how criminal disenfranchisement laws prevent millions of people from regaining the right to vote because they cannot afford criminal legal fines and fees.
High Pain, No Gain: How Juvenile Administrative Fees Harm Low-Income Families in Alameda County, California
At the time this report was written, by California law, counties were authorized to recoup the costs of their juvenile justice systems by charging administrative fees to juvenile defendants and their families. This policy report takes a close look at Alameda County’s system of administrative fees.
A Proposal to End Regressive Taxation Through Law Enforcement
Across the country, jurisdictions have repurposed their police officers into revenue-generating agents through the assessment and enforcement of fines, fees, and seizures. In addition to the economic and legal burdens, …
State Bans on Debtors’ Prisons and Criminal Justice Debt
This Note makes the case for considering state constitutional and statutory prohibitions on debtors’ prisons alongside Bearden v. Georgia claims in legal advocacy opposing excessive fines and fees.
The Ohio Model for Combatting Debtors’ Prisons
This article summarizes the research, advocacy, and communications tools the ACLU of Ohio used to successfully combat debtors’ prisons and provides guidance on how to execute similar strategies in other states.
The Growing and Broad Nature of Legal Financial Obligations: Evidence from Court Records in Alabama
This report provides granular data on the imposition and payment of fines and fees in Alabama. The authors gathered and analyzed 200,000 court records over the last two decades to provide a comprehensive picture of the assessments of fines and fees across the state.
Why Motive Matters: Designing Effective Policy Responses to Modern Debtors’ Prisons
In this essay, Marsh and Gerrick challenge the most common justification for why debtors’ prisons still exist in present-day America: generating revenue to fund local government and courts. The authors argue that revenue generation is an “incomplete explanation” for debtor’s prisons and point to a variety of other factors that could help complete the picture.
Debtors’ Prison for Kids? The High Cost of Fines and Fees in the Juvenile Justice System
This report documents how and when youth and families face fines, fees and restitution and the economic and legal consequences for failure to pay.
Sharecropper Finance: Using the Justice System as a Public Revenue Source
This article compares the fines and fees practices of Ferguson, Missouri and other municipal governments with the older economic technique of sharecropping.
Nickel and Dimed into Incarceration: Cash-Register Justice in the Criminal System
The article provides an overview of criminal justice fines and fees; applies the Sixth Amendment jury trial right to these fines and fees; considers the question of “when criminal justice debt rises to the level of punishment; and suggests several solutions to the problem.