Digital Jail: How Electronic Monitoring Drives Defendants Into Debt
This article describes the fundamental issues with electronic monitoring by private companies through the experience a St. Louis, Missouri resident.
Supervision Fees
Inherently Unstable: The History and Future of Reliance on Court-Imposed Fees in the State of Texas
In this article, Todd Jermstad argues that relying on court-imposed fines, fees, and costs to fund the court system in Texas is not financially feasible.
Justice “cost points”: Examination of privatization within public systems of justice
This study explores how local and state governments allow corporations to generate profits from public criminal justice institutions and examines how that structure harms people forced to pay for private services.
New Data: Low Incomes – But High Fees – For People On Probation
The imposition of unaffordable probation fees punishes poverty and places them at risk of being jailed when they cannot pay. Most states charge monthly probation fees, while others use “reasonableness” …
Commercialized (In)justice: Consumer Abuses in the Bail and Corrections Industry
This report examines two concerning trends: the increasing use of fines and fees to fund the criminal legal system, and functions of that system being outsourced to private companies who profit from the criminal legal system.
Too Poor to Pay: How Arkansas’s Offender-Funded Justice System Drives Poverty & Mass Incarceration
This report identifies several promising issue areas for fines and fees reform in Arkansas, including nonpayment incarceration, driver’s license suspension for unpaid fines and fees, and probation fees. The authors interviewed 205 people who were charged and/or incarcerated over inability to pay fines and fees; performed court-watching in 8 counties; sent almost 300 records requests; and interviewed Arkansas criminal justice and social service stakeholders.
Statutory Inequality: The Logics of Monetary Sanctions in State Law
This article analyzes Illinois laws to investigate the fines and fees people are expected to pay and what happens when they cannot afford to pay these costs.
It’s All About The Money: An Exploration of Probation Fees
Texas relies on supervision fees from probationers to recuperate operating costs for their probation program; failure to pay can result in additional sanctions and ultimately, revocations. This study used focus …
Alameda County Administrative Code Section 2.42.190 (Amendment): Prohibiting assessment and collection of fees for adult probation services; fees collected by Public Defender’s Office; fees for Sheriff’s Office Work Alternative Program
This ordinance eliminates criminal justice administrative fees charged by Alameda County, California. In particular, it eliminates county-imposed probation fees, public defender fees, and fees associated with the Sheriff’s Office Work Alternative Program.
Pay or Prey: How the Alameda County criminal justice system extracts wealth from marginalized communities
This whitepaper uses evidence-based research and personal narratives to examine the harms caused by Alameda County criminal legal fees.