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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:04 am
Time: 12:04 am
Results for offender finances
4 results foundAuthor: Evans, Douglas N. Title: The Debt Penalty: Exposing the Financial Barriers to Offender Reintegration Summary: Financial debt associated with legal system involvement is a pressing issue that affects the criminal justice system, offenders, and taxpayers. Mere contact with the criminal justice system often results in fees and fines that increase with progression through the system. Criminal justice fines and fees punish offenders and are designed to generate revenue for legal systems that are operating on limited budgets. However, fines and fees often fail to accomplish this second goal because many offenders are too poor to pay them. To compound their financial struggles, offenders may be subject to other financial obligations, such as child support payments and restitution requirements. If they do not pay their financial obligations, they may be subject to late fees and interest requirements, all of which accumulate into massive debt over time. Even if they want to pay, offenders have limited prospects for meaningful employment and face wage disparities resulting from their criminal history, which makes it even more difficult to pay off their debt. An inability to pay off financial debt increases the possibility that offenders will commit new offenses and return to the criminal justice system. Some courts re-incarcerate offenders simply because they are unable to settle their financial obligations. Imposing financial obligations and monetary penalties on offenders - a group that is overwhelmingly indigent - is not tenable. States often expend more resources attempting to recoup outstanding debt from offenders than they are able to collect from those who pay. This report explores the causes and effects of perpetual criminal debt and offers solutions for encouraging ex-offender payment. Details: New York: John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2014. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 9, 2014 at: http://jjrec.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/debtpenalty.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://jjrec.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/debtpenalty.pdf Shelf Number: 133631 Keywords: Criminal FeesCriminal FinesCriminal Justice DebtFinancial SanctionsOffender FinancesPrisoner Reentry (U.S.) |
Author: Nagrecha, Mitali Title: When All Else Fails, Fining the Family. First Person Accounts of Criminal Justice Debt Summary: The types of financial obligations owed to the state have proliferated, and the penalties for debt have been increasingly criminalized with harsh sanctions. In that sense, our interviews confirmed what other advocacy groups and individual scholars have recently found: There has been a surge in criminal justice debt and increasing state punitiveness meted out to those who fail to pay. Many incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals have been swept into what we have come to call a debt-enforcement regime. Punishment is everywhere and criminal justice debt can confine individuals to a liminal space where prison is never a thing of the past. Debt is paid not only by those convicted of crimes, but also by their families (or friends) who are the last stop before re-incarceration. Families and friends provide important assistance in staunching the debt that relatives or friends face when returning from prison, knowing that such debt can trigger punitive consequences, including reincarceration. Our interviews demonstrate that post-prison debt fulfillment is often family subsidized, as returning individuals struggle with criminal justice debt and other challenges of reentry. Even assuming that it is the returning prisoner who has "done the crime," it is often up to his or her friends and family members to help pay the time. This is the main finding of this study. Public policy aimed at collecting debt must ultimately be more closely tailored to the ability of an individual - not that of his or her family or network of friends - to pay what may be due. While families have an important role to play in the successful reintegration of their family member, they should not have to bear the burden of debt repayment as a means to avert the re-incarceration of their loved one. This is particularly important as the financial condition of families of formerly incarcerated people is often precarious even without their shouldering financial penalties. Details: Syracuse, NY: Center for Community Alternatives, 2015. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: accessed February 7, 2015 at: http://www.communityalternatives.org/pdf/Criminal-Justice-Debt.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.communityalternatives.org/pdf/Criminal-Justice-Debt.pdf Shelf Number: 134561 Keywords: Criminal Fees Criminal Fines Criminal Justice Debt (U.S.)Financial SanctionsOffender FinancesPrisoner Reentry |
Author: Cook, Foster Title: The Burden of Criminal Justice Debt in Alabama: 2014 Participant Self-Report Survey Summary: Across the country the criminal justice system has increasingly looked to defendants to finance the courts and court related programs. In Alabama, the legislature has reduced funding for courts and court related services. To offset this loss, court costs and associated fees have risen. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the success of this approach and the impact of these policies in Alabama. With the general knowledge that increased court costs have not produced projected revenue, we sought to understand why by surveying defendants across the state. We thank the Community Corrections Directors in the counties represented, the staff that administered the surveys and the Alabama Department of Probation and Parole. Three goals of this study: 1. Explore the "ability to pay" question 2. Understand the dynamics of the collection process 3. Understand the consequences criminal justice debt has to: - Defendants under court supervision - The purposes of the justice system - The public - Recidivism - Persons in the criminal justice system living in poverty Methods of this study: 1. This study was initially designed as an anonymous survey for Jefferson County/TASC, and Probation and Parole 2. Other Alabama counties expressed interest and participated in the study 3. Those populations have been combined in the following outcomes: a. 13 counties b. 943 participants under supervision for a felony were surveyed 4. Primarily Quantitative: descriptive statistics 5. Secondarily Qualitative: comments recorded from the participants Details: Birmingham, Alabama: TASC Jefferson County's Community Corrections Program, University of Alabama, 2015. 27p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 8, 2016 at: http://www.uab.edu/medicine/substanceabuse/images/The_Burden_of_Criminal_Justice_Debt_in_Alabama-_Part_1_Main_Report.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.uab.edu/medicine/substanceabuse/images/The_Burden_of_Criminal_Justice_Debt_in_Alabama-_Part_1_Main_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 137794 Keywords: Criminal Debt (U.S.) Criminal Fees Criminal Fines Criminal Justice DebtFinancial SanctionsOffender Finances Prisoner Reentry |
Author: Harvard Law School. Criminal Justice Policy Program Title: Confronting Criminal Justice Debt: A Guide for Policy Reform Summary: This report is part of Confronting Criminal Justice Debt: A Comprehensive Project for Reform, a collaborative project by Criminal Justice Policy Program (CJPP) at Harvard Law School and the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC). This project includes three parts designed to assist attorneys and advocates working on reform of criminal justice debt: Confronting Criminal Justice Debt: The Urgent Need for Comprehensive Reform (CJPP and NCLC), Confronting Criminal Justice Debt: A Guide for Litigation (NCLC), and Confronting Criminal Justice Debt: A Guide for Policy Reform (CJPP). Details: Cambridge, MA: Criminal Justice Policy program, 2016. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 26, 2016 at: http://cjpp.law.harvard.edu/assets/Confronting-Crim-Justice-Debt-Guide-to-Policy-Reform-FINAL.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://cjpp.law.harvard.edu/assets/Confronting-Crim-Justice-Debt-Guide-to-Policy-Reform-FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 140454 Keywords: Criminal Fees Criminal Fines Criminal Justice Debt (U.S.) Financial SanctionsOffender Finances |