Who Must Pay to Regain the Vote? A 50-State Survey (Update)
This report is an updated review of each U.S. state’s voting rights laws as they relate to payment of court fines, fees, and restitution.
First Steps Toward Equitable Fines and Fees Practices: Policy Guidance on Ability-to-Pay Assessments, Payment Plans, and Community Service
Jurisdictions across the country continue to impose disproportionate fines and fees. Until reform can be made, assessing a person’s ability to pay is critical to achieving fairness and equity in …
The Price of Justice: Fines, Fees and the Criminalization of Poverty in the United States
Mass incarceration and the rising cost of the justice system correlate with the high number and value of fines and fees imposed throughout the justice system. As federal funding for …
Monetary Sanctions, Legal and Collateral Consequences, and Probation & Parole
Increasingly, jurisdictions have elevated their dependence on the offender-funded justice model, in which legal financial obligations (LFOs) have become prevalent. Regardless of their intended function, in the criminal justice system, …
Unveiling the Necrocapitalist Dimensions of the Shadow Carceral State: On Pay-to-Stay to Recoup the Cost of Incarceration
States and local jurisdictions across the United States impose pay-to-stay fees to generate revenue. Sociologist Brittany Friedman analyzes this practice using a necrocapitalism framework—a form of capitalism linked to death …
The Relationship Between Debt and Crime: A Systematic and Scoping Review
In a first of its kind, this study explores the relationship between debt and crime among adolescents and adults. The two-part study includes a systematic review of five studies that …
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.
Local Government Dependence on Criminal Justice Revenue and Emerging Constraints
Across the nation, local governments use the criminal justice system to balance their budgets through fines, fees, costs, assessments, and forfeitures. Many have become dependent on criminal justice revenue to …
Debt, Incarceration, and Re-Entry: A Scoping Review
Justice-involved people and their families are heavily burdened by debt: legal financial obligations (LFO) from criminal justice involvement, pre-existing debt that compounded during incarceration, and debts accrued during reentry. This …
Best Practices: Reforming Fine & Fee Policies in the Criminal Justice System
The tough-on-crime era of the 1980s and 1990 and anti-tax sentiments have led many state and local governments to shift the cost of the criminal justice systems from taxpayers to …