State of Phone Justice: Local jails, state prisons and private phone providers
This policy brief from the Prison Policy Initiative provides an overview of prison and jail phone call fees and makes several recommendations to reform them.
(Color)blind Reform: How ability-to-pay determinations are inadequate to transform a racialized system of penal debt
This law review article argues that fines and fees reformers’ emphasis on instituting ability-to-pay determinations without any reductions in racially discriminatory ticketing may cause more harm than good. In particular, the author articulates a concern that ability-to-pay determinations risk legitimizing the existing system of monetary sanctions and entrenching damages inflicted upon people deemed ‘able to pay.’
Prison Phone Justice: Intrastate Collect Prison Phone Rates [Map]
The Campaign for Prison Phone Justice maintains a website tracking the cost of phone calls from prisons in all U.S. states as well as the sum of kickbacks that families of incarcerated people have paid to relevant corrections agencies nationwide.
To Serve and Collect: The Fiscal and Racial Determinants of Law Enforcement
The authors’ completed model predicts that when a local government is experiencing a fiscal crisis, local police departments will increase arrests for “offenses that carry fines or the opportunity to forfeit assets.”
No More Shackles: Why We Must End the Use of Electronic Monitors for People On Parole
Conditions for individuals on parole have grown more stringent with the addition of electronic monitoring. Electronic monitoring is seen as an alternative form of incarceration, but the deprivation of liberty …
Smart on Crime Innovations Conference panel, “Eliminating User Fees: Just and Fair Ways to Fund the Justice System”
FFJC Co-Director Joanna Weiss participated in a Smart on Crime Innovations Conference panel about eliminating “user fees” in the justice system.
Ten Guidelines on Court Fines and Fees
The American Bar Association developed ten guidelines to ensure that fines and fees do not punish people disproportionately for their poverty.
The Price of Justice: The High Cost of “Free” Counsel for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System
This report documents that the families of children charged with crimes are forced to pay for the cost of legal counsel in all but 10 U.S. states – despite the Constitution’s guarantee that young people who are indigent are entitled to court-appointed counsel.
How Fines and Fees Criminalize Poverty: Explained
Fines and fees are levied at every stage of the criminal justice system. People who are poor and unable to pay them are criminalized and face many collateral consequences in …
Why journalists should cover local jails
In this article for The Poynter Institute, Al Tompkins underscores the importance of journalists covering local jails and suggests several coverage angles that journalists can use to convince readers to care more about incarceration at the local level.