Public Safety Archives - Page 7 of 11 - Fines and Fees Justice Center

Salience, Incentives, and Timely Compliance: Evidence from Speeding Tickets

As monetary sanctions in law enforcement have become increasingly more prevalent and their budgetary significance non-trivial, little is known about why certain behavioral interventions increase compliance in some contexts but …

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.

Driving While Black and Latinx: Stops, Fines, Fees, and Unjust Debts

This paper presents data suggesting that Black, Latinx, and poor people in New York disproportionately suffer the consequences of driver’s license suspensions due to traffic ticket debt and racially disproportionate traffic enforcement.

Re-Prioritizing Traffic Stops To Reduce Motor Vehicle Crash Outcomes and Racial Disparities

In 2010, Fayetteville, North Carolina, experienced a high motor vehicle crash rate while also combating eroding community trust in police. At the request of their newly appointed Chief Harold Medlock, …

Driving on Empty: Florida’s Counterproductive and Costly Driver’s License Suspension Practices

Driving on Empty shows how driver’s license suspension for nonpayment in Florida detracts from public safety, and outlines the racial and economic disparities perpetuated by this practice.

Taxation by Citation? Exploring Local Governments’ Revenue Motive for Traffic Fines

In 1977 California counties received 74 percent of their own-source general funds from property tax, but after Proposition 13, counties’ property tax decreased by over 50 percent. Since the passage …

The Steep Costs of Criminal Justice Fees and Fines, A Fiscal Analysis of Three States and Ten Counties

This Brennan Center research report analyzes the numerous disadvantages of the current criminal justice fine and fee systems of ten counties in Texas, Florida, and New Mexico.

What Do We Know About Community Service?

Host Matt Watkins of New Thinking interviewed Harry Glenn and James Brodick from the Center for Court Innovation (CCI) and Joanna Weiss from the Fines and Fees Justice Center about …

Court-Ordered Community Service: A National Perspective

Community service mandates date back to the late 1960s as an alternative to incarceration for nonviolent crimes. It has since evolved into a component of monetary sanctions or probation rather …

Court-Imposed Fines as a Feature of The Homelessness-Incarceration Nexus: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Relationship Between Legal Debt and Duration of Homelessness in Seattle, Washington, USA

Public health practitioners have long linked homelessness and criminal conviction. This is the first study of the effect of legal financial obligations (LFOs) on the duration of homelessness. In a …