Who Pays for Government? Descriptive Representation and Exploitative Revenue Sources
This study found that cities with larger black populations are more likely to use fines to generate revenue, but black legislators reverse that pattern.
Racial Disparities
Research Note: Justice System–Imposed Financial Penalties Increase the Likelihood of Recidivism in a Sample of Adolescent Offenders
The authors of this study analyze the effects of financial penalties (fines, fees, and restitution) two years after being imposed on 1,167 youth with a supervision status of adjudicated delinquent …
Confronting Criminal Justice Debt: The Urgent Need for Comprehensive Reform
This report is the first publication in a three-part series entitled “Confronting Criminal Justice Debt: A Comprehensive Project for Reform.” It provides an overview of the many types of fines and fees that the criminal justice system imposes and the collateral consequences that can result from them, with a particular emphasis on racial and economic disparities.
White House Forum on Access to Justice Panel: Fines & Fees – At the Intersection of Civil and Criminal Justice
In this video recording of a White House Forum on Access to Justice panel, FFJC Co-Director Lisa Foster (then Director of the Office of Access to Justice at the Department of Justice) moderates a panel about how fines and fees in the criminal justice system can lead to a myriad of civil woes for low-income Americans.
Stopped, Fined, Arrested: Racial Bias in Policing and Traffic Courts in California
In California, Black and Latino drivers are more likely to have their licenses suspended or be arrested for driving with a suspended license. This report examines the stark racial and …
Disenfranchised by Debt
This report discusses how criminal disenfranchisement laws prevent millions of people from regaining the right to vote because they cannot afford criminal legal fines and fees.
High Pain, No Gain: How Juvenile Administrative Fees Harm Low-Income Families in Alameda County, California
At the time this report was written, by California law, counties were authorized to recoup the costs of their juvenile justice systems by charging administrative fees to juvenile defendants and their families. This policy report takes a close look at Alameda County’s system of administrative fees.
Debtors’ Prison for Kids? The High Cost of Fines and Fees in the Juvenile Justice System
This report documents how and when youth and families face fines, fees and restitution and the economic and legal consequences for failure to pay.
Sharecropper Finance: Using the Justice System as a Public Revenue Source
This article compares the fines and fees practices of Ferguson, Missouri and other municipal governments with the older economic technique of sharecropping.
Taxing the Poor: Incarceration, Poverty Governance, and the Seizure of Family Resources
To finance its carceral system, the United States government levies taxes on the country’s most impoverished strata. Although those involved in the justice system are typically low-income individuals, they are …