Tools Archives - Fines and Fees Justice Center

How to Use Budgets to Understand Criminal Justice Fines and Fees

The Vera Institute of Justice published a toolkit to help advocates analyze local budgets to better understand the impact of fines and fees and where reforms are needed. The publication …

National Center for Access to Justice Fines and Fees Index

In 2016, the National Center for Access to Justice debuted it’s Justice Index and in May 2020, it was updated for the second time. The Fines and Fees Index, an …

NCLC Litigation Tracker

The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) launched a litigation tracker devoted to cataloging recent consumer law cases challenging abuses by bail and corrections industry actors. The tracker is organized into …

Money and Punishment, Circa 2020

In conjunction with the 23rd Annual Liman Colloquium held in the Fall of 2020, the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School, the Fines and Fees …

How California Jails and Youth Lockups Profit off Incarcerated People & Their Families

In partnership with the Young Women’s Freedom Center and the Children’s Defense Fund of California, the San Francisco Financial Justice Project examined the costs of phone calls in youth lockups …

Clearing the Path to a New Beginning: A Guide To Discharging Criminal Justice Debt In Bankruptcy

This guide outlines how criminal justice debt may be treated in Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy and details the types of fines, fees, and costs that can and cannot be discharged through Bankruptcy.

Ohio Bench Card: Collection of Court Costs and Fines in Adult Trial Courts

This bench card provides guidance to judges regarding the imposition and collection of court costs and fines. The benchcard provides that a person may be jailed for a willful refusal …

Ohio Bench Card: Collection of Fines and Fees in Juvenile Court

The bench card provides guidance to judges on how to determine a juvenile’s ability to pay, and outlines the circumstances unique to juveniles that must be considered before punishing a …

COVID-19 Crisis: FFJC Policy Recommendations and Policy Tracker

FFJC has released a set of policy recommendations to help stem the harms of this ongoing public health and economic crisis. This page also tracks state and local fines and fees reform efforts undertaken in response to coronavirus.

COVID-19 Crisis: Advocacy Materials

FFJC is compiling advocacy materials for organizations and community members across America who are working toward fines and fees policy changes in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Below, you can …