Maryland House Bill 566: Waives pretrial home detention fees for indigent defendants.
Maryland HB 566 provides that indigent defendants shall not be required to pay a home detention monitoring fee.
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Personal Narrative: Kevin
Kevin lives in a rural town in Alabama and is disabled. He relies on his monthly disability check to support him and his partner. He could not afford car insurance, but he continued to drive since there are no other viable options for transportation where he lives. After he was ticketed for lack of insurance, his license was suspended and his fine only compounded the thousands of dollars in court debt he already owed.
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.
Howard v. The City and County of Denver, Colorado
To be released from jail in Denver, a person must pay the bond and the bond fee. Payment of the bond alone is insufficient to secure the release.
Nevada Assembly Bill 110: Traffic ticket notification and bench warrants.
Nevada AB 110 makes changes to the notification process for traffic tickets and related court dates.
(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.’
California SB 144: Criminal fees.
This bill repeals the authority to collect certain criminal administrative fees including fees for public defenders, booking, mandatory drug testing and costs related to incarceration and probation supervision.
Virginia Senate Bill 1013: Relating to suspension of driver’s license for nonpayment of fines or costs.
This bill, which did not pass, would have ended driver's license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees in Virginia.
It’s All About The Money: An Exploration of Probation Fees
Texas relies on supervision fees from probationers to recuperate operating costs for their probation program; failure to pay can result in additional sanctions and ultimately, revocations. This study used focus …
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.