COVID-19 Crisis: Advocacy Materials
FFJC is compiling advocacy materials for organizations and community members across America who are working toward fines and fees policy changes in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Below, you can …
Driver's License Suspension
Advancing Financial Justice in San Francisco: The Experience and Lessons of the City’s Financial Justice Project
This paper summarizes the lessons, successes, and challenges of the San Francisco Financial Justice Project, especially concerning criminal justice fines and fees reform.
Personal Narrative: Charlene
Not having a driver's license because of unpaid fines and fees was yet another burden that Charlene Cintron carried as a Floridian who is disabled, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Thin Ice: Bureaucratic Processes of Monetary Sanctions and Job Insecurity
This article shows how court debt collection practices affect employment opportunities based on research conducted in Illinois and Washington State.
Robinson v. Purkey [Robinson v. Long]
County Clerks in Tennessee automatically suspend the driver’s license of persons who fail to pay their traffic debt within a 30-90 day window.
Driving Toward Justice: How ending driver’s license suspensions for unpaid traffic tickets helps communities without impacting court collections
This brief describes reforms that were implemented after the San Francisco Superior Court’s decision to eliminate debt-based driver’s license suspensions.
The Explosion of Unpaid Criminal Fines and Fees in North Carolina
The amount of debt owed to North Carolina’s criminal courts has increased at a staggering rate. This report gives a scope of how much debt is uncollectible, identifies the people in the state most harmed by the current system, and pinpoints the case types that yield the lion’s share of this debt.
Fines and Monetary Sanctions
Alexes Harris, the author of this research papers, discusses various criminal legal system fines and fees and argues that imposing these costs can worsen social inequality.
West Virginia House Bill 4958: Eliminating driver’s license suspension for failure to pay court fines and costs
This bill ends driver's license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees in West Virginia, and requires courts to develop uniform payment plans.
Virginia SB1: Driver’s license; suspension for nonpayment of fines or costs.
This bill ends driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees in Virginia and requires the Virginia DMV to reinstate suspended licenses.