Criminal Justice Debt Reform Builder
The Criminal Justice Debt Reform Builder is an online tool that allows users to quickly explore and assess fines and fees reform statutes in all 50 states.
Driver's License Suspension
The Price of Being Poor: How Fines and Fees Entrench Inequality and What Has to Change [Panel]
As part of the Aspen Institute’s 2017 Summit on Inequality and Opportunity, this panel discussion was convened to discuss problems posed by fines and fees practices. During the panel, Rev. …
Monetary Sanctions in the Criminal Justice System
This review of law and policy is the first-year report of a five-year study comprising quantitative and qualitative research that provides a detailed understanding of how fines and fees are imposed and enforced across the United States.
Louisiana House Bill 249: Payment of fines, fees, costs, restitution, and other monetary obligations related to an offender’s conviction
Louisiana House Bill 249 protects people convicted of a felony and their dependents from facing undue hardship because of fines and fees.
Mississippi Department of Public Safety declines to enforce statute that permits driver’s license suspension for failure to pay fines and fees
The Mississippi Department of Public Safety made a number of discretionary changes regarding driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees -- they stopped suspending licenses for nonpayment, restored licenses, and waived the $100 reinstatement fee for those drivers.
$23,000 in traffic fines reduced to $9 for man as pilot program takes on New Orleans’ court system
In March 2017, New Orleans nonprofit Stand with Dignity sponsored a Warrant Clinic in New Orleans. Over 1,200 people (who owed an average of $8,000 in fines and fees) participated in the clinic.
D.C. Law 22-175: Traffic and Parking Ticket Penalty Amendment Act of 2018.
The Council of the District of Columbia unanimously amended the District of Columbia Traffic Adjudication Act of 1978 to eliminate the suspension of drivers’ licenses for unpaid traffic debt or failure to appear at hearings.
Maine LD 1190: An Act Regarding Driver’s License Suspensions for Nondriving-related Violations
This bill abolishes driver’s license suspensions for failure to pay fines and fees imposed in criminal cases, except traffic offenses.
Personal Narrative: Izell Mayes
Mayes’ traffic debt started back in 1989 when he got his first traffic ticket and couldn’t afford to pay it. He missed one court date after another and also racked up more traffic citations until his total traffic ticket debt was nearly $23,000.
California SB 185: Crimes: infractions.
This bill would have ended the practice of suspending licenses as a sanction for nonpayment of fines and fees. It also mandated that judges reduce fines and fees and provided guidelines for determining a defendant’s ability to pay fines and fees.