Who Must Pay to Regain the Vote? A 50-State Survey (Update)
This report is an updated review of each U.S. state’s voting rights laws as they relate to payment of court fines, fees, and restitution.
Collateral Consequences
The Price of Justice: Fines, Fees and the Criminalization of Poverty in the United States
Mass incarceration and the rising cost of the justice system correlate with the high number and value of fines and fees imposed throughout the justice system. As federal funding for …
Community Success Initiative, et al. v. Moore, et al.
In North Carolina, roughly 70,000 individuals are prohibited from voting because they have a prior felony conviction, and in many cases individuals are disenfranchised solely because of their inability to …
Unveiling the Necrocapitalist Dimensions of the Shadow Carceral State: On Pay-to-Stay to Recoup the Cost of Incarceration
States and local jurisdictions across the United States impose pay-to-stay fees to generate revenue. Sociologist Brittany Friedman analyzes this practice using a necrocapitalism framework—a form of capitalism linked to death …
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 seeking citizenship in the US.
Cited for Being in Plain Sight: How California Policies Being Black, Brown, and Unhoused in Public
This report is a detailed analysis of non-traffic infraction data from California which shows that minorities are cited at higher rates than White people.
New York’s Ferguson Problem- How the state’s racist fee system punishes poverty, lacks transparency, and is overdue for reform
This paper shows how New York’s criminal justice fines and fees practices worsen racial disparities and punish low-income people.
UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review
The UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review (CJLR) has partnered with the Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School to publish works from the Progressing Reform of Fees and Fines …
Debt, Incarceration, and Re-Entry: A Scoping Review
Justice-involved people and their families are heavily burdened by debt: legal financial obligations (LFO) from criminal justice involvement, pre-existing debt that compounded during incarceration, and debts accrued during reentry. This …
The High Costs of “Justice”: A Snapshot of Juvenile Court Fines and Fees in Michigan
Through information collected from counties, advocates, community members and court involved families, the National Center for Youth Law published this brief summarizing the impact of juvenile court fines and fees …