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.
Courts as Revenue Centers
How Fines and Fees Impact Families: Can Policies like the Child Tax Credit Help?
Low-income families burdened by court-imposed financial penalties often turn to high cost predatory services or forgo basic needs to avoid further legal consequences for nonpayment. In 2021, the Child Tax …
Police Killings and Municipal Reliance on Fine-and-Fee Revenue
Between 2016 and 2021, more than 400 unarmed people were killed by police during traffic stops. In addition, metropolitan areas that rely more on revenue from fines and fees experience …
Fines and Fees: Consequences and Opportunities for Reform
The utilization of fines and fees in the criminal legal system for revenue generation raises substantial questions regarding equity and may create perverse incentives for government entities dependent on the …
Local Governments Collected $9 Billion in Fines And Fees in 2020
The use of fines and fees to generate revenue can be exploitative and a conflict of interest when relied on as an essential source of revenue. Using data from the …
Broken Rules: Laws Meant to End Debtors’ Prisons are Failing Nebraskans
Nebraska law has safeguards that should prevent people from being incarcerated solely because they cannot afford a fee or fine. Some include statutes that require considering a person’s ability to …
Regressive Revenue Perpetuates Poverty: Why Georgia’s Fines and Fees Need Immediate Reform
More than 300 localities in Georgia use revenue from fines and fees to balance their budgets, and 20 percent do so at rates researchers consider high and abusive. Georgians who …
Increasing Justice In New York: How New York Could Go From Failing to First in the Nation on the Fines and Fees Justice Index
With dozens of fees and fines at every stage of the legal system, New York has created a two-tiered justice system that engulfs low-income people in the criminal legal system. …
Legal Financial Obligations in Washington State: Final Report
Washington state code refers to 376 unique criminal legal financial obligations (LFOs) that stem from misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors, or felony convictions. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) used …
Audit Report Office of the Clerk of Circuit Court Baltimore City, Maryland
Since 2008, five audits by the Office of Legislative Audits have identified deficiencies regarding the collection of delinquent criminal court fees, fines, and penalties by the Clerk of Circuit Court …