Who Must Pay to Regain the Vote? A 50-State Survey (Update)
This report is an updated review of each U.S. state’s voting rights laws as they relate to payment of court fines, fees, and restitution.
Voting Rights
The Price of Justice: Fines, Fees and the Criminalization of Poverty in the United States
Mass incarceration and the rising cost of the justice system correlate with the high number and value of fines and fees imposed throughout the justice system. As federal funding for …
Community Success Initiative, et al. v. Moore, et al.
In North Carolina, roughly 70,000 individuals are prohibited from voting because they have a prior felony conviction, and in many cases individuals are disenfranchised solely because of their inability to …
UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review
The UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review (CJLR) has partnered with the Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School to publish works from the Progressing Reform of Fees and Fines …
Court Costs, Fines, And Fees Are Bad Policy- Recommendations For Illinois Legislators
This policy brief discusses the history and issues of court fines and fees nationally and specifically in Illinois.
Who Must Pay to Regain the Vote? A 50-State Survey
This report analyzes state voting laws to show how fines and fees are used to determine if a person can regain the right to vote after getting convicted of a felony.
Kelvin Leon Jones et al. v. Ron DeSantis et al.
Background: Beginning in 1838, Florida’s constitution allowed the legislature to disenfranchise felons. Effective January 8, 2019, Amendment 4 of the Florida constitution added a provision automatically restoring the voting rights …
If We Only Knew the Cost: Scratching the Surface on How Much it Costs to Assess and Collect Court Imposed Criminal Fines and Fees
This report investigates the amount of time and resources the court system spends to assess and collect criminal fines and fees.
Can’t Pay, Can’t Vote: A National Survey On The Modern Poll Tax
Felony convictions and court debt have become barriers to restoring voting rights for millions of people living in the U.S. This report provides a history of poll taxes and explains how felony disenfranchisement serves as a barrier perpetuating the same inequality-producing results: African-Americans and poor people lose the right to vote and struggle to regain voting rights at disproportionate rates.
UNDER PRESSURE: How fines and fees hurt people, undermine public safety, and drive Alabama’s racial wealth divide
This report examines in detail the collateral consequences of Alabama’s court debt system and explores the ways in which it undermines public safety and drives the state’s racial wealth divide.