Past Due: Examining the Costs and Consequences of Charging for Justice in New Orleans
This video discusses how New Orleans residents get trapped in the city’s court system because of their lack of financial means.
Debtors' Prisons
Past Due: Examining the Costs and Consequences of Charging for Justice in New Orleans
This report documents the amount New Orleans residents pay in bail, fines and fees, traces where the money goes, and calculates how much the city spends to jail people who cannot pay.
Unequal Justice Bail and Modern Day Debtors’ Prison in Nebraska
The imposition of bail and monetary sanctions on indigent Nebraskans has led to individuals held pretrial making up half of the state’s local jail populations, and others sitting out their …
Biloxi Municipal Court Procedures for Legal Financial Obligations & Community Service
This bench card was created as part of a 2016 settlement agreement in Kennedy v. Biloxi, an ACLU lawsuit against the city of Biloxi, Mississippi, where defendants could avoid incarceration only if they paid their fines and fees immediately, in full, with cash.
Debtors’ Prisons: Life Inside America’s For-Profit Justice System
This video provides an overview of the history of debtors’ prisons in the U.S. and features compelling commentary from citizens describing how our current system of court fines and fees put them in difficult situations and made them resort to desperate measures for survival.
Dade v. City of Sherwood
Plaintiffs alleged that the Sherwood’s “hot check” court routinely jailed indigent persons unable to pay court fines and fees without inquiry into their ability to pay.
Baker et al. v. City of Florissant
In violation of due process rights, the City of Florissant jails people unable to pay court fines and fees without any inquiry into their ability to pay.
A Fine Scheme: How Municipal Fines Become Crushing Debt in the Shadow of the New Debtors’ Prison
As budgets tighten, municipalities have turned to fines and fees to fill empty coffers. The result is that the rich may walk away, while the poor must pay or stay.
Roberts et al. v. Black et al.
Fifteen percent of the Bogalusa City Court’s revenue is derived from court fines and fees. Judge Black gives indigent defendants the options of jail for nonpayment of fines and fees or the payment of an illegal $50 extension fee to buy additional time to pay their court debt.
Personal Narrative: Rozzie Scott
Rozzie Scott, a resident of Bogalusa, Louisiana was found guilty of stealing $5 worth of food to feed his family. Judge Black ordered him to pay $450 in court fines and fees.