fines are only a punishment for the poor

In 2020, Equifax was made to pay further settlements relating to the breach: $7.75 million (plus $2 million in legal fees) to financial institutions in the US plus $18.2 million and $19.5 million . Monetary sanctions reduce family income and create long-term debt. Ending racial segregation in schools or restaurants and striking down bans on interracial marriage never could have been achieved by a popular vote in the American South. The task force issued a report with findings and recommendations for the civil and criminal sides and several different audiences. See Press Release, U.S. Dept of Justice, Fact Sheet on White House and Justice Department ConveningA Cycle of Incarceration, Imprisonment, and Debt (Dec. 3, 2015). What does it mean for a punishment to be cruel and unusual? In Ferguson, African Americans were 68 percent less likely to have their cases dismissed, more likely to have cases last longer and have more court encounters, and 50 percent more likely to have an arrest warrant issued against them. Link couldn't be copied to clipboard! Join our movement today. I think they see their one particular role, so I think you're right, judges sentence. For many, this means it is critical to reject efforts to limit constitutional protections to the original intentions of the flawed men who wrote the Constitution. This does not mean that any punishment that was once part of our tradition can still be used today. They also point out that the punishment is authorized in a majority of states, and public opinion polls continue to show broad support for it. Justices Scalia and Thomas argue that the four questions raised above should be answered as follows: (1) The standards of cruelty that prevailed in 1791, the year the Eighth Amendment was adopted, provide the appropriate benchmark for determining whether a punishment is cruel and unusual. It makes no sense to have a system to hold people accountable to make these financial payments, when they can never be held accountable. State and local governments, with support from the federal government, should respond to the special rapporteurs findings by working together to remedy the two-tiered system of justice, CJPP and Human Rights Watch said. The county prosecutor worries that the practice is unfair to poor defendants, and he has. Probation and supervision (20 states). Former federal public defender Alexandra Natapoff says 13 million misdemeanors are filed each year in the U.S., trapping the innocent, punishing the poor and making society more unequal. Then, within each of these layers of legal debt, there are types or buckets of LFOs. (Washington, DC, June 21, 2018) The United States government at all levels should act to prevent the criminal justice system from punishing poverty and further impoverishing the poor, the Criminal Justice Policy Program (CJPP) at Harvard Law School and Human Rights Watch said today. Officials can work with impacted populations on everything from parking tickets to payment plans to utility fines and fees. In 2013, in a city of about 21,000 people, the court issued more than 9,000 municipal arrest warrants relating to cases of minor violations, traffic tickets, and housing code violations. You have to pay to apply to have a public defender. They're in fact a major way that many justice systems are funding their own operations, and yet for years now, judges and attorneys haven't really been properly trained in the ramifications of these fines and fees, and people are regarding them as the fine print of a sentence, whereas in fact they can be sometimes the most onerous part of a sentence. COBURN:And I would say in some regards, I don't think that they're necessarily naive of sometimes it's going to take him a long time to pay, but I do think the education is not just being educated on the ramifications of the long-term effects, but literally being educated on what the law is, really understanding what the LFO is, and whether you have authority to impose it or not, or reduce it or waive it, or whether you even prohibited from imposing it to begin with. One of the most serious problems was that the court issued municipal arrest warrants for missed appearances. In many other countries around the world, they find systems, and under those systems, their offense has a score, a number associated with the offense that they're convicted of. And so even though you had clients who want to please the court and say, "I can make payments of $50 a month or $25 a month," you don't necessarily really understand in their circumstances what they're giving up in order to do that, or how long it's going to take them to actually pay off the LFOs and what implications that that may mean.WATKINS: What would you say then that you are understanding now better, and how did you come to that understanding? Alston also cautions that privatization of the criminal justice system can harm poor people. . There are also a number of best practices in litigation and legislation emerging from Washington. It just slowly becomes a permanent punishment for people who are poor in our society.WATKINS:Yeah, I've seen, I think, the family of a young man who was assessed with all kinds of fines and fees describe it as, "Feeling like you're drowning in a swimming pool, and they just keep adding more water over top of your head. In some instances, what would happen if somebody said, "Well, I'm on food stamps now," and courts would say, "All right, but you could get a job tomorrow, so therefore I'm not finding you indigent." According to a document OSHA provided to TIME, Dollar General received $16 million in initial penalties since 2017 but has only paid $3.9 million so far and owes a balance of $631,666. Bains noted that the LFOs kept people trapped in poverty, especially taking into account the mounting debt and collateral consequences of repeated imprisonment, employment, housing, etc. Allen best described it when he shared that $500 or $600 for someone who has no ability to pay may as well be $1 million. Multiply that by the various convictions that some people have and you are left with people who, no matter what their intentions or how hard they try to rectify the situation, are sentenced to harsher punishments and an even more devastating poverty from which they can never emerge. Bring constitutional challenges and use the DOJs Dear Colleague letter. I think for those who are on the extreme end of indigency, that wasn't a problem, but I also represented the working poor. Conduct more research or coordinate with someone who can conduct more research. Within a society riven by so much inequality, a system of punishment based on economic resources can never be fair or just. And if you cant pay, you could end up in jail. The defendant avoids formal processing, but if the defendant cant pay the fee, he or she is formally processed. Human Rights Watch is a 501(C)(3)nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 13-2875808. And if that happens, people will have warrants put out for their arrest, and they can be re-incarcerated. Your membership has expired - last chance for uninterrupted access to free CLE and other benefits. Washington, with the 1783 bill, now set a standard for indigents, in particularly with regards to mental illness that people cannot have discretionary fees imposed. Professor Harris, I want to thank you so much for making the time to join us today.HARRIS:Oh, sure. When I did the math for her, she was stunned. They go to jail or prison, but they also have community supervision post-release. {{currentYear}} American Bar Association, all rights reserved. Assessments should be simple, easy to understand, and uniform. Having the data gives you the numbers and the power to put behind a movement to change how the system works. This amendment prohibits the federal government from imposing unduly harsh penalties on criminal defendants, either as the price for . Where there is no ability to pay, there is no way to complete restitution. Next, Hirsch shared that they tried to take a step back and did a schoolhouse rockwho touches how an assessment becomes law? They found all the different stakeholders that were involved in the process. Also letting you see what the total amount isallow you to add, for example, probation assessments and understanding what that means as far as the defendant and their ability to pay that off in a reasonable amount of time. And people wonder why we don't have debtor's prisons. Neither the Constitutions Framers nor the document they created was flawless. As our notions of fairness, equality, and justice have evolved, so too must our interpretation of the Constitution. I believe we must first ask whether we deserve to kill. But first up is Edmonds municipal court Judge Linda Coburn from Washington State. Some states, such as Ohio and Washington, have issued bench cards outlining what is mandatory and what is discretionary. They make a paymentparticularly because of the interest, and hopefully this will change in the next couple years, we'll see itbut particularly because of the interest and the additional surcharge for collections, people say, "I make a $20 payment. WATKINS:Then I realize that you're a judge and so you're perhaps limited in how you can answer this question, but do you have your own sense of just what kind of role you think fines and fees should be playing in an equitable justice system? He describes how cities are jailing or fining the poorest people for offenses rooted in their homeless status, saying he observed aggressive enforcement of this kind in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Should it look to some other standard? Please give now to support our work. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this website (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided). Caitlin Croley, Punishment Only for the Poor: The Unconstitutionality of Pay-to-Vote Disenfranchisement Laws, 71 Emory L. J. Government . The Illinois report proposes four legislative actions and draft language: a civil assessment act with all assessments, an expansion of the fee waiver provision, a criminal and traffic assessment act similar to the civil one proposed, and a new criminal fee waiver provision. Legal challenges have focused on the Fourteenth Amendment, but there are many cases in the pipeline now to develop Eighth Amendment case law. Share this via Twitter If the federal government tried to bring back the rack, or thumbscrews, or gibbets as instruments of punishment, such efforts would pretty clearly violate the Eighth Amendment. The DOJ released a Dear Colleague letter on March 14, 2016, clarifying that, based on Bearden v. Georgia, courts must determine whether a person can pay before imprisoning them for fines. . We know in general, the people who make contact with our systems of justice, particularly in the superior courts at the felony level, tend to be unemployed, underemployed, low-economic groups, have mental health issues, and drug and alcohol addiction. So for example, in New York, doesn't allow the private profiting off of collect calls anymore from prisons. Best practices and ideas on how to change our restitution system are emerging from across the country, and they include taking into account the persons ability to pay, allowing for conversion of restitution to community service, looking to more restorative justice approaches, imposing restitution rather than other fines, imposing statutes of limitations on restitution, allowing for modification of restitution, and making it a civil collection and taking it out of the criminal and juvenile justice systems. We do know some things about the history of the phrase cruel and unusual punishments. In 1689 a full century before the ratification of the United States Constitution England adopted a Bill of Rights that prohibited cruell and unusuall punishments. In 1776, George Mason included a prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments in the Declaration of Rights he drafted for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Ukraine remains in control of a key supply route into the eastern city of Bakhmut, a military spokesperson has said. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. If it fell out of usage for multiple generations, however, it might become cruel and unusual. You're also doing some more national work. One of the most significant of these new powers was the power to create federal crimes and to punish those who committed them. What I shouldn't consider is, "Well, I need to make sure that my clerk gets paid. They might have community service they have to perform, they might have to have drug-and-alcohol assessment and treatment that they have to pay for. And many of the people that I've interviewed have said this: "I know I need to be held accountable. WATKINS:You've talked about how when you were a public defender and perhaps when you started out as a judge, you didn't have a full appreciation of the impact of fines and fees. Many court systems rely on this money to fund their own operations, and often contract private collection agencies. Harris is gratified by the surge in attention the issue has been receiving, but worries not enough peoplewhether among legal professionals or the general publicappreciate the "layers of punishment" low-income defendants are being subjected to. Now that you have this deeper appreciation, just how big of a role do you see fines and fees playing in the justice system as a whole?COBURN:I think it plays a huge role. Second, does the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause only prohibit barbaric methods of punishment, or does it also prohibit punishments that are disproportionate to the offense? Justice should not be blind to how it harms the poor, and federal and state governments should work with reform movements to fix these problems., The Impact of Offender-Funded Private Probation on the Poor, US Courts, Debt Buying Corporations, and the Poor, Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people in close to 100 countries worldwide, spotlighting abuses and bringing perpetrators to justice. Finally, are some modern methods of punishment such as the extended use of solitary confinement, or the use of a three-drug cocktail to execute offenders sufficiently barbaric to violate the Eighth Amendment? Professor of Clinical Law, New York University School of Law, and Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative, Professor of Law and Assistant Director, Criminal Justice Center, University of Florida Levin College of Law. Fines may be imposed on youth and families. Its a detailed study of fines and fees practices in Washington State. Examples are 4.75 percent interest (Florida), 7 percent interest (Georgia), 12 percent interest (Washington), a 15 percent penalty on unpaid balances and a 30 percent collection fee (Illinois), and a 19 percent collection fee for delinquent payments and a $35 fee (Arizona). Alston also condemned the US practice of enforcing criminal laws against people who lack housing for conduct directly related to their situation, like sleeping in public places. COBURN:Well, I think after becoming a judge and being on the benchrealizing my role of when I'm imposing it and what are all the laws that are applicable regarding what is mandatory, what can be waived? Maybe $2,000 for your first drug offense conviction, and then it might raise on subsequent convictions. Laws implementing restitution create barriers. Dr. Harris has also found other courts nationally that are more restorative and allow people to pay off their debt by attending programs that lead to better reintegration into their community. By law, if we're required to take in somebody's ability to pay and make sure that the payment plan is reasonable, which is what case law has stated, how are we supposed to do that without some type of assistance and help? See also Press Release, U.S. Dept of Justice, Justice Department Announces Findings of Two Civil Rights Investigations in Ferguson, Missouri (Mar. On March 4, 2015, the DOJ released a report on its investigation into the police department, which included an analysis of the Ferguson Municipal Court and fees assessed because, unlike in other jurisdictions, in Ferguson the police essentially exercised supervision over the courts. For example, the court clerk reported to the police chief, and the court was physically located within the police department. (4) Are some modern methods of punishment such as the extended use of solitary confinement, or the use of a three-drug cocktail to execute offenders sufficiently barbaric to violate the Eighth Amendment? Bains also emphasized how Ferguson did not allow for a license suspension to be lifted until all fines had been paid in full, which was a stricter standard than was called for by Missouri law, and additional fines were imposed in these cases. A sentence of life imprisonment without parole may be acceptable for some crimes, but it would violate the Constitution to condemn anyone to die in prison for shoplifting or simple marijuana possession. Restitution is different from other costs, but when the costs are added together, restitution is part of how it makes it difficult for young people to pay everything back. In some jurisdictions, this could mean that restitution has to be collected first per case. When you fall behind on those payments, in some jurisdictions youll be hit with interest and surcharges. The judge is supposed to have a hearing to determine whether or not the reason that they chose not to paythat they have the resources, but chose not to make a payment. Legal Financial Obligations: What Are They? Also, having a better understanding of this person's going to take five years to pay off what I'm considering imposing, eight years to pay off, four years to pay off, whatever it may be, and is that what I intended? She is a professor of sociology at the University of Washington and the author of the 2016 book from the Russell Sage foundation: A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as Punishment for the Poor. COBURN:I can say that the legislature determines obviously the laws that they pass; that is not my role. LFOs create family stress and relationship strains affecting children. Collection costs and interest on unpaid balances. If youve ever had an encounter with the criminal justice system, chances are it came with a price tag. And for poor people, they have to express it every month for the rest of their lives? And in some jurisdictions, the local jurisdiction, either the municipality or the county, will transfer the debt to a private collections agency. This website is funded in whole or in part through a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. It's supposed to curb the offender and set up a system where I'm not going to do that again. EdmondsMunicipal Court Judge Linda Coburn of Washington State. A famous piece of literature? And so what I would argue at those levels is that we need to have some sort of graduated sanction. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Coburn was a public defender. So when I was doing my research, I saw judges ask about women's manicures. The clerk still issued a warrant then for his arrest, even though he had made efforts and demonstrated inability to pay. In response to a growing national concern over LFO issues, the DOJ convened, on December 2, 2015, a diverse group of court administrators, judges, lawmakers, affected individuals, and others. Clause prohibits imposing overly burdensome fines on the poor, . "HARRIS:That's what people say. JLC reached out especially to families to collect stories about what happens to young people and their families as a result of LFOs. But once we get beyond these areas of agreement, there are many areas of passionate disagreement concerning the meaning and application of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause: First and foremost, what standard should the Court use in deciding whether a punishment is unconstitutionally cruel? Research shows clearly that the chance of being caught is a vastly more effective deterrent than even draconian punishment. Phrased differently, there is nothing in the Constitution that gives unelected judges the authority to overturn laws enacted by democratically elected legislatures, based on the judges own subjective ideas of what current standards of decency require. nor be deprived of life . I think that creates an inherent conflict of interest.WATKINS:It sounds to me like what you're describing is a situation where fines and fees are really integral to the justice system. But I do think more and more increasingly, there's been so much conversation locally and nationally, and also within other states, that judges are aware. Evaluation and testing (31 states). Shes come up with an innovative solution to the problem of fines and fees, or as she calls them LFOs, and that stands for legal financial obligationsand please remember that acronym. and that this kind of activity was actually making it harder for them to gain the publics trust. The Ferguson case is now in the settlement phase. It costs the police departments about $65 a day to keep someone in jail for not paying their fines. Her research looked at national statutes, but the quantitative and qualitative data came from the state of Washington. So, from one end of the continuum, judges would impose it, at the minimum amounts, and not really incarcerate unless people were not paying for restitution. And some, the ones that I've interviewed in Washington, there was a split. Restitution is almost impossible to undo and will never expire. Even the US most widely used alternative to money bail concerns Alston, who warns that pretrial risk assessment tools that rely on formulas may replicate existing societal racial and class biases, but project a false veneer of objectivity. There is not time or space here to answer all these questions, but the essays that follow will demonstrate differing ways of approaching several of them. Get updates on human rights issues from around the globe. Annual collection fees are assessed first. Shutterstock. This is a purposeful consequence that our policy makers have created for individuals who make contact with our systems of justice, and it's completely counter to everything that we know, as sociologists, as criminologists, about what people need to do, or the types of supports and circumstances that people need to have post-incarceration and conviction in order to be successful and move forward with their lives.WATKINS:And how much has the practice of fines and fees, how much has it grown in recent decades?HARRIS:My argument in my book is that as the result of mass conviction and incarceration, we've seen states in the 90s and the early 2000s dramatically expand the types of fines and fees that can be imposed, and the amounts of fines and fees that can be imposed. And if you do, how many packs are you smoking a month?" Vaginal Changes. In other words, a common punishment might be more cruel than a rare one: For example, it would be more cruel to commit torture on a mass scale than on rare occasions, not less. Non-legal factors (such as gender, race, and ethnicity) significantly influence the amount of LFO imposed. Court-imposed user fees for processing. Theres a link to the ability-to-pay calculator she helped design on our website. It just creates these huge barriers, and it's ironic, because the state policy makers that set these laws, this isn't a collateral consequence. So it makes no sense to have a system to hold people accountable, to make these financial payments, when they can never be held accountable. The program was moderated by Lourdes Rosado, chief of the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Office of the Attorney General, and prominently featured the following panelists: Alexes Harris, associate professor, Department of Sociology, University of Washington, Chiraag Bains, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Jessica Feierman, associate director, Juvenile Law Center, Danielle Elyce Hirsch, assistant director of the Civil Justice Division, Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, Nick Allen, staff attorney, Columbia Legal Services. A comprehensive bill died in 2015 and 2016 in the Washington Senate because of fiscal concerns (erroneous data to persuade legislators) and ideological differences (such as the view that people are choosing not to pay or interest is an incentive to payment or LFOs hold defendants accountable). Many courts are struggling to interpret a 1983 Supreme Court ruling protecting defendants from going to jail because they are too poor to pay their fines. Whereas now, I break down what that represents, and I understand what that means. Danielle Elyce Hirsch presented the findings of the Illinois Statutory Court Fee Task Force. Is there consistency, at least, in the systemacross states, say, in how the system is applied?HARRIS:In Washington, I found this huge variation in the five counties that I studied, and the ways in which judges interpreted the state statute, applied it, and then monitored individuals. The Illinois report recommends the following five core principles: Courts should be funded from general government revenue, not user taxes. Fees are itemized payments for court activities, supervision, or incarceration charged to defendants determined guilty of infractions, DISPROPORTIONATELY IMPACT THE misdemeanors or felonies. All fines should be replaced with community service or a system that gauges fine amounts based on net income. Fines may either supplement imprisonment or probation, or they may be the sole punishment. Im Matt Watkins. And then, how much are you generating to put back into your local government?" Various states charge for use of a public defender, a DNA sample, a drug test, a diversion program, your monthly parole meetings, even a jury trial. The third LFO started as $1,300 plus interest, which the client could also not afford to pay, so it was turned over to collections, where 50 percent was added to the outstanding balance, as allowed by Washington statute. JLC is finding that LFOs undermine the goal of the juvenile justice system of giving young people a second chance. It was really nice to talk with you.WATKINS:That was Alexes Harris. And so other judges, and prosecutors, and clerks, felt that this was a system of accountabilitythis is another way, from a paternalistic standpoint, that individuals can be held accountable and show that they're remorseful for their crime. Please try again. The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the American Bar Association, the Section of Litigation, this committee, or the employer(s) of the author(s). What exactly am I assessing for? Major criminal justice reforms such as removing mandatory fines, providing relief for poor defendants and assessing the ability to pay would go far in correcting a criminal justice system that punishes low-income people, a Rutgers University-New Brunswick study finds. . Due to your consent preferences, you're not able to view this. Keywords: litigation, childrens rights, legal financial obligations, court fines, restitution, interest, juvenile court. For example, Abraham Holmes argued that Congress might repeat the abuses of that diabolical institution, the Inquisition, and start imposing torture on those convicted of federal crimes: They are nowhere restrained from inventing the most cruel and unheard-of punishments, and annexing them to crimes; and there is no constitutional check on them, but that racks and gibbets may be amongst the most mild instruments of their discipline. Patrick Henry asserted, even more pointedly than Holmes, that the lack of a prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments meant that Congress could use punishment as a tool of oppression: Congress . Help us continue to fight human rights abuses. . And I am not saying anything like that; what I'm saying is that we need to create a system that allows people to be punished and recognize that what they've done is wrong.

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