The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/tag/cash-register-justice/)
The prosecutor in Rapides Parish, La., had ramped up a “pretrial diversion” program and kept the money from fees paid by defendants to avoid charges. That prompted a lawsuit from local officials.
Unable to make bail for his DUI offense, Oklahoman Jeremy Brown opted for a community supervision program that kept him out of jail. He ended up owing $760 to a private company.
Two-thirds of all license suspensions in New York are just for traffic debt. In the upstate city of Rochester, the poor have been hit the hardest.
Under a proposal by the Vera Institute of Justice, the city will be the first in the country to replace money bail and conviction fees— “the twin pillars on which money injustice stands”— with a fair system aimed at reducing the number of individuals held in pretrial detention.
The ruling comes in response to a suit filed by inmates who claim St. Louis is violating their constitutional rights by failing to weigh their ability to pay bonds, among other things, before jailing them.
A state crackdown on driving without a license is making criminals out of tens of thousands of New Yorkers, and straining court systems—with no discernible benefit to public safety, say lawyers and researchers.
Non-payment of traffic fines in many states can lead to license suspensions and a vicious spiral of debt for low-income families. A New York legislator has a better idea.
The state’s prison authorities defend a new policy of charging inmates for hospital drug treatment as a disciplinary measure for those who use contraband drugs. Advocates call it counterproductive and cruel for patients who earn less than a dollar a day.
Oklahoma’s state and local government agencies’ funding streams have become increasingly reliant on fines, fees and court costs assessed to defendants, a financial crisis in the making as the state’s criminal justice reforms begin to lower the numbers of felony cases.
Americans owe nearly $136 billion in criminal debt—most of which is unrecoverable. Scholars and experts gathered at a Brookings forum Friday to discuss a new proposal for “graduated sanctions” that could remove the crushing burden from justice-involved individuals and their families.