McGrath v. Suffolk County
Issue Whether Suffolk County’s imposition of administrative fees on red light camera violations exceeding the state statutory cap of $50 per violation (or $75 with a late fee) is preempted …
Predation and the Disproportionate Risk of Driver’s License Suspensions in Economically and Racially Marginalized Communities
Driver’s license suspensions for non-safety reasons such as failure to appear or failure to pay exploit vulnerable groups in order to fill state and local budgets. Analyzing Department of Motor …
Which Town and Village Courts Collect The Most Fines and Fees in NY And CNY?
According to the State Comptroller’s Office, in 2022, New York’s nearly 1,200 towns and villages collected $189 million in fines, fees, and surcharges from traffic tickets, penalties imposed in criminal …
Memorandum: Total Cost of Three Selected Categories of Unpaid Fines and Charges in New York City
Over $2 billion of unpaid penalties from a six-year period is due to New York City. The Independent Budget Office (IBO) calculated the total amount of unpaid fines and charges …
Increasing Justice In New York: How New York Could Go From Failing to First in the Nation on the Fines and Fees Justice Index
With dozens of fees and fines at every stage of the legal system, New York has created a two-tiered justice system that engulfs low-income people in the criminal legal system. …
Surviving Austerity: Commissary Stores, Inequality and Punishment In The Contemporary American Prison
As mass incarceration exploded in the 1980s, so did fiscal austerity, leading to the use of monetary sanctions and user fees to shift the financial burden from taxpayers to those …
Eliminating Discriminatory Fines and Fees: Learning from San Franscisco
In New York City, fines and fees provide the city with more than $2 billion in revenue each year. However, many of these fines and fees fall on lower income …
How Corporations Turned Prison Tablets Into a Predatory Scheme
Tablets have become another commodity that predatory corporations use to price gouge incarcerated people. In 2017, JPay distributed free mini-tablets to the prison population in New York, providing access to …
What is Wrong with Monetary Sanctions? Directions for Policy, Practice, and Research
Each year tens of millions of people are assessed fines, fees, and other costs stemming from their contacts with the criminal legal system, ranging from felony convictions to traffic violations. …
What Is Wrong with Monetary Sanctions? Directions for Policy, Practice, and Research
Monetary sanctions are an increasing form of punishment for criminal offenses that have generated billions of dollars in revenue while also generating massive amounts of penal debt for low-income individuals. …