Welcome to FFJC’s digital library of resources related to fines and fees, also known as the Clearinghouse. Our repository of research and tools is curated and summarized by our Policy and Research team and includes key fines and fees research, litigation, legislation, policy analysis and guidance, and case studies. Use the search features below to find the information you need to drive reform.
E.g., ‘impacts of fines and fees’
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Debt Sentence: How Fines And Fees Hurt Working Families
This report shares the results of a national survey of over 5,600 adults to see how court-imposed fines and fees affect people across the country.
Debt Sentence: How Fines And Fees Hurt Working Families
Cascading Consequences of Fines and Fees on Rural Communities
Cascading Consequences of Fines and Fees on Rural Communities
Despite evidence that fines and fees are an unstable and unreliable revenue source, states and local governments impose court fines and fees to fund court operations, law enforceme…
Right-Sizing the Role of Traffic Enforcement: Prioritizing Effective, Cost-Efficient and Equitable Improvements to Road Safety
Right-Sizing the Role of Traffic Enforcement: Prioritizing Effective, Cost-Efficient and Equitable Improvements to Road Safety
Communities are simultaneously grappling with significant increases in the number of people killed and injured in traffic crashes and reductions in police staffing levels. This rep…
Safe Roads for All: Evidence-Based Strategies for Keeping Our Roadways Safe
Safe Roads for All: Evidence-Based Strategies for Keeping Our Roadways Safe
Each year, millions of people are trapped in an inescapable cycle of debt as ticketing practices prioritize profits over safety. This white paper, a collaboration between the ACLU…
Hidden Price of Justice: Fines and Fees in DC’s Criminal Legal System
Hidden Price of Justice: Fines and Fees in DC’s Criminal Legal System
The use of criminal legal fines and fees to to fill state and local budgetary gaps has deep roots in a history of anti-Black racism. That history is evident in Washington, DC where…
Civil Assessments: The Hidden Court Fee That Penalizes Poverty
Civil Assessments: The Hidden Court Fee That Penalizes Poverty
California allows courts to charge a civil assessment fee of up to $300 to people who miss a deadline to pay or appear in court. An estimated 300,000 people receive civil assessmen…
Why Inequitable And Burdensome Court-Issued Fines And Fees Are A Health Issue—And What Health And Policy Leaders Can Do About It
Why Inequitable And Burdensome Court-Issued Fines And Fees Are A Health Issue—And What Health And Policy Leaders Can Do About It
Social determinants like court debt can negatively influence an individual’s health. Through healthcare hotspotting, the Rutgers Law School/Camden Coalition, Medical-Legal Pa…
Crimsumerism: Combating Consumer Abuses in the Criminal Legal System
Crimsumerism: Combating Consumer Abuses in the Criminal Legal System
Increasingly, criminal legal system debt is owed not only to the state, but also to a vast network of private companies profiting from the criminalization of poverty and communitie…
Pay Unto Caesar: Breaches of Justice in the Monetary Sanctions Regime
Pay Unto Caesar: Breaches of Justice in the Monetary Sanctions Regime
In this report, the authors analyze how people in the court system think about monetary sanctions with regard to constitutional, retributive, procedural and distributive justice. U…
Flattened: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Knocked Financially Insecure Alabamians on their Backs and Widened the Racial Prosperity Gap
Flattened: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Knocked Financially Insecure Alabamians on their Backs and Widened the Racial Prosperity Gap
Between May and September 2020, Alabamaba Applesseed and partners surveyed 389 financially insecure Alabamaians. The authors documented how daily lives and financial circumstances…
Who Does America Want?
Who Does America Want?
This paper details the fines and fees imposed on people for traffic offenses in Connecticut, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia, and immigration-related fees imposed on people se…