National Archives - Page 3 of 9 - Fines and Fees Justice Center

Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2019, Featuring Supplemental Data from April 2020

For the first time, the Federal Reserve collected information about how criminal legal debt from fines and fees affects American families.

Municipal Fines and Fees: A 50-State Survey of State Laws

This report, including an interactive map, provides a 50-state analysis of state laws that regulate municipal imposition and collection of fines and fees. The analysis is based on 52 factors, organized into 7 broad categories, that measure the extent to which state laws “prohibit, sustain, encourage or neutralize” municipal reliance on fines and fees.

Fines and Monetary Sanctions

Alexes Harris, the author of this research papers, discusses various criminal legal system fines and fees and argues that imposing these costs can worsen social inequality.

Ethical Obligations of Judges in Collecting Legal Financial Obligations and Other Debts

This opinion from the American Bar Association addresses the obligations judges have to assess ability to pay when collecting fines and fees.

If We Only Knew the Cost: Scratching the Surface on How Much it Costs to Assess and Collect Court Imposed Criminal Fines and Fees

This report investigates the amount of time and resources the court system spends to assess and collect criminal fines and fees.

Monetary Sanctions: Legal Financial Obligations in US Systems of Justice

This review provides a historical background of court fines and fees and shows how these costs affect people present day.

What Do We Know About Community Service?

Host Matt Watkins of New Thinking interviewed Harry Glenn and James Brodick from the Center for Court Innovation (CCI) and Joanna Weiss from the Fines and Fees Justice Center about …

Proportionate Financial Sanctions: Policy Prescriptions for Judicial Reform

In this report, the Criminal Justice Policy Program (CJPP) at Harvard Law School proposes a framework where courts would impose means-adjusted fines as a proportionate sentence for an offense. The authors assert that by adopting the proposed recommendations, courts can ease or prevent the worst harms that excessive financial sanctions create for poor people without waiting for legislative reforms.

Addicted to Fines: Small towns in much of the country are dangerously dependent on punitive fines and fees

This GOVERNING report presents the findings of a nationwide analysis of several jurisdictions' fine and fee revenue rates and how much of this funding source supports general budgets.

Digital Jail: How Electronic Monitoring Drives Defendants Into Debt

This article describes the fundamental issues with electronic monitoring by private companies through the experience a St. Louis, Missouri resident.