So, there is a legal protection, but the problem is that our courts at the state level have not established how judges should be interpreting the criteria by which judges should be interpreting willful nonpayment. Maybe $2,000 for your first drug offense conviction, and then it might raise on subsequent convictions. Defendants are sometimes required to pay a fee to expunge their records; other times, they are not allowed to seek expungement until they have paid off other costs. . Is it a quote from a game? Illinois. And so I'm hoping this can help us create more momentum to talk about these key issues, and thinking through how, if we really want to be a just society like we claim we are, how can we hold people who violate the law accountable in a way in which they can meet that accountability, repent, and move forward with their lives to be productive and successful, happy citizens? They might have to attend victim's classes, they might have electronic home monitoring. Some states, such as Ohio and Washington, have issued bench cards outlining what is mandatory and what is discretionary. But this is a literal trial penalty.HARRIS:You have to pay to have a jury of your peers adjudicate you? On the third LFO, he owes $3,500 in principal and $3,300 in interest. I talked to her, and I said, "Hey, did you realize how long it would take this person to pay this off?" The system of monetary sanctions reinforces our two-tiered system of justice: one for people with financial means and one for people without. And both of those are supposed to be punitive, related to your punishment. So when I was doing my research, I saw judges ask about women's manicures. So that's a whole other part of the story, is that in every way that people are being charged from being in jail for certain things, private probation, private collections, a literal captive audience has to pay to make profits for private companies.WATKINS:So in your observations, how much do you think judges actually understand about the fines and fees system? The county prosecutor worries that the practice is unfair to poor defendants, and he has. Fines is also part of punishments, and theoretically, it is supposed to be a punishment. WATKINS:We always hear this phrase "fines and fees" together. You can be charged for your daily stay in a jail or prison. (3) The Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause does not prohibit the death penalty, because capital punishment was permissible in 1791, and because the text of the Constitution mentions the death penalty. He is scheduled to present his findings to the UN . "HARRIS:That's what people say. And it's proportionate to the offense, in terms of the severity of the offense, and it's proportionate to what the offender can pay. 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. These practices appear to have evolved from governments desire to reduce taxation to support criminal justice in favor of increasing fines and fees for offenders. First, the task force identified the types of civil and criminal court assessments present in Illinois circuit courts, from filing to mandatory arbitration fees. So even one policy maker I interviewed said that, "The system allows for people to every month make a payment and then express their remorse." First is the fine associated with any convictionif its a felony, that can easily be upwards of $1,000, and thats in addition to any time in jail or prison. Cost of counsel. The main sexual problems for women tend to be trouble getting to orgasm, lack of desire, and vaginal dryness. One man who owed the city close to $1,000 in fines wrote to the city that he wanted to pay what he owed and was trying to put together what he could, but it was hard to get work with the warrants. That's an example where she didn't intend that. Ferguson, Missouri. Burr ran for governor of New York and Hamilton widely considered the most influential founding father of the United States opposed his candidacy, making public remarks that Burr found insulting. American Bar Association Specifically, the Fifth Amendment commands that No person shall be held to answer for a capital . And so what I would argue at those levels is that we need to have some sort of graduated sanction. And I want to pay my restitution. It's supposed to curb the offender and set up a system where I'm not going to do that again. (2) The Clause prohibits only barbaric methods of punishment, not disproportionate punishments. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Coburn was a public defender. Bains shared best practices gathered by the DOJ and learned from Ferguson: ensure policing and court enforcement are not driven by revenue but by public safety, consider a comprehensive amnesty program to forgive cases and warrants before a certain date, eliminate unnecessary fees, define warrant practices to comply with due process, increase court transparency, and work closely with judges because many of them are willing to speak out and take action. Danielle Elyce Hirsch presented the findings of the Illinois Statutory Court Fee Task Force. Recent Washington legislative efforts include highlighting the disproportionate effects on the poor and communities of color, reducing the 12 percent interest rate, defining terms (criteria for indigence, ability to pay, types of evidence defendants can provide, willful nonpayment), establishing clear alternatives, making LFOs discretionary, and establishing statewide consistency. . For progressives, the constitutionality of a particular punishment cannot be evaluated in the abstract. 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. dominant punishment for petty offenses and economic crimes.8 Today, fines are often the sole or primary form of punishment . I think for those who are on the extreme end of indigency, that wasn't a problem, but I also represented the working poor. EdmondsMunicipal Court Judge Linda Coburn of Washington State. As these debates demonstrate, the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause clearly prohibits barbaric methods of punishment. Or is it your position that the system would function better pretty much without them?HARRIS:I don't think the general public understands the layers of punishments that people receive. 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). For wealthy people, they can express it and pay it, right? Once in collections, a 23 percent interest was added, so that LFO is now over $1,600. In particular, authorities should not rely on fines and fees to pay for government programs because they disproportionately hurt the poor. 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. Money bail also creates pressure on the poor who want to return home to plead guilty, leaving them with a criminal record solely because they could not afford bail, research has found, though Alston did not address this aspect in his report. If the Court wanted to get rid of the death penalty, for example, it could simply announce that the death penalty no longer comports with current standards of decency, and thereby abolish it. The United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, highlighted the practice during a recent visit to the country. This approach begs complex questions, such as who decides what is decent and what is cruel? She is a professor of sociology at the University of Washington and the author of the 2016 book, A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as Punishment for the Poor. I was one of those suicidal kids you read about. A life sentence for a parking violation, for example, would not violate the Constitution. When I did the math for her, she was stunned. According to Feierman, the JLC found that the problem is widespread and highly problematic. The report outlines the types of costs imposed: Court costs (27 states). How Do LFOs Affect People Who Are Unable to Pay? So the state of Washington, in 2015, generated $30 million, which sounds like a lot, but on the average $30 per open account annual payment. The certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent than the punishment. Receive important updates about our work transforming the justice system. Oftentimes that's the word that's used "They know I'm unemployed." Can you waive it? Join our movement today. When it comes to LFOs, we do not seem to have an appreciation for the serious impact that poverty has on a person and his or her ability to meet an LFO. And then you go to the window, and discover that it's four times higher and eight years later, it's X number of times higher than that.HARRIS:So individuals are shocked when they get their bills, and seeing it balloon. Next, they analyzed data from across the state and made four findings: (1) costs are increasingly passed on to court users; (2) assessments are constantly increasing and outpacing inflation; (3) there is extreme diversity in assessment amounts from one county to another (e.g., driving under the influence conviction assessments: $327 in Knox County but $1742 in McLean County); and (4) low- and moderate-income Illinois residents are severely and disproportionately affected. Professor Harris, I want to thank you so much for making the time to join us today.HARRIS:Oh, sure. WATKINS:Yeah, from that perspective, it also seems hopeful that the issue of fines and fees appears to be getting a lot more attention of latein media coverage, and public discourse, and I think from criminal justice reformers as well. To give us some background first, Hirsch explained that, in the process of exploring the idea of adding a filing fee to fund civil legal aid services and an ambitious civil Gideon pilot, Illinois decided to create a bipartisan task force composed of all the relevant stakeholders to analyze assessments and make recommendations. I also am excited to see, in both Ginsburgs and Thomas's decisions, that they linked excessive forfeitures with the Black Codes and convict leasing programs. Since the modern era of capital punishment in the United States began in the 1970s, 154 people have been proven innocent after being sentenced to death. 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. A Human Rights Watch analysis has found that risk assessment tools have the potential to be as harmful as the system it seeks to replace. Please give now to support our work. She is currently heading up a multi-year research project comparing those practices across eight states. I need to make sure that I get paid. Having the data gives you the numbers and the power to put behind a movement to change how the system works. Such practices have often been favored over policies such as preserving affordable housing or providing health services to address the problem of poverty. The special rapporteur addresses the many ways the US criminal justice system punishes people for their poverty and helps entrench their poverty further, said Komala Ramachandra, senior business and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. without due process of law. If the death penalty were unconstitutional, they argue, it would not be mentioned in the Constitution. My own research into the original meaning of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause shows that Justice Scalias and Thomass approach has a fatal flaw: It ignores the meaning of the word unusual. Their decision to ignore this word makes sense because there seems to be no connection between a punishments rarity and its cruelty. 4, 2015). 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 . So, there is this inherent creation of the money that is being collected through the courts as being viewed as revenue, and so that creates this difficult dynamic and pressure, whether it's sometimes explicit from the legislative branch of the government or whether it's implicit. COBURN:I can say that the legislature determines obviously the laws that they pass; that is not my role. Since flogging, branding, and various forms of bodily mutilation were permissible in the Eighteenth Century, few modern forms of punishment are likely to fall into this category. . Restitution (50 states and the District of Columbia). He/him/his. Prior to that law, there was a requirement that courts consider ability to pay before imposing costs, but the law was read to where they consider your current and future ability to pay. The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. This amendment prohibits the federal government from imposing unduly harsh penalties on criminal defendants, either as the price for obtaining pretrial release or as punishment for crime after conviction. In 1791, this same prohibition became the central component of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. 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. (3) Does the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause prohibit the death penalty? LFOs do not expire in Washington for felony convictions, which means that people can be brought back into the system, cannot vacate their record, or recover their full civil rights until their LFOs are paid in full. Court-imposed user fees for processing. There must be a relationship between an assessment and access to the courts because, if we keep increasing assessments, we could be impeding access and creating a barrier to reentry. It just makes no sense intuitively whatsoever in terms of generating money for local jurisdictions, and in terms of creating public safety, and in terms of supporting individuals who have done a wrong to society, have paid their sentence, in terms of spending time in jails and prisons, and having that conviction on their record, not allowing them to move forward in their lives to be successful citizens. 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. 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. Russian forces have been trying for 10 months to punch their way into the . The debates that occurred while the states were deciding whether to ratify the Constitution shed some light on the meaning of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, because they show why many people thought this Clause was needed. That shouldn't be the case, right? The greatness of our Constitution and America itself is dependent on how the Constitution is interpreted to ensure that all people are treated equally and fairly and have the same opportunity to exercise the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as the exclusive group of men who authored the Constitution. If a given punishment has been continuously used for a very long time, this is powerful evidence that multiple generations of Americans have considered it reasonable and just. JLC found that the practices were widespread. Today's penalties are far less severe: fines, community penalties, imprisonment. Penalties include point deductions of 75-120 points, deductions of 10-25 playoff points, the suspension of one or two crew members for four-to-six races and fines between $100,000 and $250,000. In the second part of the show, youll hear from Alexes Harris, perhaps the leading researcher on how fines and fees are used across the country. In other counties, anyone who owed any debt would regularly have warrants put out for their arrest, and they'd be incarcerated for up to 60 days.WATKINS:So it's not uncommon, then, for people to end up in jail for being unable to meet their debts, in this case, a debt to the court system?HARRIS:No, it's not uncommon at all. Then, within each of these layers of legal debt, there are types or buckets of LFOs. This approach allows the Supreme Court to get to whatever result it considers desirable, regardless of what the text of the Constitution actually means. But I still argue that right now, if you think of my son's coloring book, and he colors within the lines, I still think that people are just using a different color crayon to color within the lines. I believe we must first ask whether we deserve to kill. 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. Can you reduce it? You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. . A cumulated disadvantage is generatedaccessing food, housing, employment, and medication, and avoidance of police and other institutions. Examples are single fees, witness fees, transportation costs, prosecution costs, court operations, depositions, and transcripts. At that rate, the victim cannot be compensated for 25 years. These tools often lack transparency and are subject to political manipulation, which raises serious due process concerns, he says. Again, it just highlights how unfair the system is.WATKINS:And so you've done this in a pretty close investigation of practices in a collection of counties in Washington state. 239 likes, 8 comments - Jermaine (@therealblackhistorian) on Instagram: "Not only was colonial Pennsylvania a slave-owning society, but the lives of free blacks in the co . It is common for courts to find a violation because the defendant couldnt pay costs. I've seen this quote passed around a lot in recent times through countless memes. But in reality, the word unusual in the Eighth Amendment did not originally mean rare it meant contrary to long usage, or new. A punishment is cruel and unusual if it is cruel in light of long usage that is, cruel in comparison to longstanding prior practice or tradition.
fines are only a punishment for the poor