Panel:
Revenue v. Justice: The Effects of Criminal Justice Debt on Courts, Policing, and Communities
(Crime and Drugs)
Thursday, November 3, 2016: 8:15 AM-9:45 AM
Northwest (Washington Hilton)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Panel Organizers: Karin Martin, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Panel Chairs: Amanda Geller, New York University
Discussants: Jude Volek, U.S. Department of Justice
Criminal Justice Financial Obligations (CJFO’s) are growing in ubiquity and severity across the nation. In the past five years, nearly every state has increased its civil and/or criminal fees and the federal system assessed more than $12 billion in CJFO’s in FY2013. The debt from these criminal justice financial obligations has numerous, extremely deleterious consequences including: rearrest, additional debt, liens, extended probation/parole, harmed credit (which affects ability to secure housing, employment, and transportation) – all of which can undermine the goals of the criminal justice system and successful reentry into society. Policy reform in this domain requires answers to questions such as: What is the actual cost to the state for collection and consequences for non-payment? What is the full extent and nature of the effect of debt on debtors and their families? How are CJFO’s used in conjunction with incarceration and how often does failure to pay result in re-arrest (despite the Supreme Court ruling in
Bearden v. Georgia that this cannot be the basis of probation revocation or re-incarceration)? To address these questions, this panel brings together academic and policy/practitioner perspectives on a pervasive criminal and civil sanction.
