Personal Narrative: Celeste
Celeste Sawyer is a single mother of five children living in Florida. Her driver’s license was suspended, because she accumulated $584 of traffic ticket debt.
Collateral Consequences
Personal Narrative: Marlo
Knapp's license has been suspended since March of 2010 due to unpaid fines and fees that she owes in Escambia County totaling near $7,000 stemming from a mix of both traffic and criminal cases.
Personal Narrative: Sean
Sean Lewis spent his 36th birthday at the Escambia County Clerk’s Office trying to resolve his overdue court fines and fees so that he could get his driver’s license back.
Driven By Debt: How Driver’s License Suspensions for Unpaid Fines and Fees Hurt Texas Families
This report discusses the various ways debt-based driver’s license suspensions harm Texas drivers, especially those that are low-income and minorities.
Personal Narrative: Melanie
Melanie is a white, 45-year-old resident of South Carolina. As a mother, she tries her best to care for her children but she has not been able to provide basic healthcare for them for years due to her license suspension.
Statutory Inequality: The Logics of Monetary Sanctions in State Law
This article analyzes Illinois laws to investigate the fines and fees people are expected to pay and what happens when they cannot afford to pay these costs.
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.
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 …
Stopping the Debt Spiral
This report shares the results of a survey of 304 low-income Illinois residents who were asked about their experience with debt, including criminal justice debt. Respondents disclosed the types of debt they had, the number of debts they owed, and the emotional toll debt takes on their families.
Personal Narrative: Khalid
Khalid never received notice of fines and fees that led to his driver's license being suspended. He lost a job offer because he had no license.