News

Personal Narrative: Kitia Harris

Kitia Harris, a 25 year-old with an eight year-old daughter, suffers from interstitial cystitis, a chronic medical condition that makes her unable to work. Her driver’s license was automatically suspended because she owed $276 for unpaid court fines and fees.

Paying More for Being Poor: Bias and Disparity in California’s Traffic Court System

This report is based on the authors’ research on traffic courts and driver’s license suspension practices in the San Francisco Bay Area. It details how much revenue courts collect from fines and fees, the harmful impacts those fees have on low-income Californians, and also advances several policy reform recommendations.

Injustice Under Law: Perpetuating and Criminalizing Poverty Through The Courts

The ability to hire an attorney in either a civil or criminal proceeding can result in an experience that is procedurally and substantively different than that of someone who is …

San Francisco Fines & Fees Task Force: Initial Findings and Recommendations

In late 2016, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors directed the Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector to create a Fines and Fees Task Force (staffed by the Treasurer’s Financial Justice Project) to study the impact of fines and fees on San Franciscans & propose relevant reforms. About six months later, the Task Force published this initial report in order to provide an overview of fines and fees in San Francisco as well as an array of reform recommendations.

Criminal Justice Debt Reform Builder

The Criminal Justice Debt Reform Builder is an online tool that allows users to quickly explore and assess fines and fees reform statutes in all 50 states.

The Price of Being Poor: How Fines and Fees Entrench Inequality and What Has to Change [Panel]

As part of the Aspen Institute’s 2017 Summit on Inequality and Opportunity, this panel discussion was convened to discuss problems posed by fines and fees practices. During the panel, Rev. …

Arizona HB 2313: Sentencing; monetary obligations; fine mitigation

This bill makes several changes to the way Arizona courts impose and enforce fines and fees. In particular, it increases judges’ power to reduce fines and fees if a defendant is unable to pay and slightly reduces certain state surcharges.

Monetary Sanctions in the Criminal Justice System

This review of law and policy is the first-year report of a five-year study comprising quantitative and qualitative research that provides a detailed understanding of how fines and fees are imposed and enforced across the United States.

Louisiana House Bill 249: Payment of fines, fees, costs, restitution, and other monetary obligations related to an offender’s conviction

Louisiana House Bill 249 protects people convicted of a felony and their dependents from facing undue hardship because of fines and fees.

Mississippi Department of Public Safety declines to enforce statute that permits driver’s license suspension for failure to pay fines and fees

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety made a number of discretionary changes regarding driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees -- they stopped suspending licenses for nonpayment, restored licenses, and waived the $100 reinstatement fee for those drivers.