NPR Report: Poor Defendants Paying More Fees

A new yearlong NPR investigation has found that costs of the United States criminal justice system are increasingly being levied against poor defendants and offenders, and that the poor who cannot pay face ever-increasing charges. While the report focuses on the criminal side of the court system, some of the trends spill into the civil courts – where some “offenders” facing non-payment of things like parking tickets can enter the criminal system.
A state-by-state NPR survey shows that “… in at least 43 states and the District of Columbia, defendants can be billed for a public defender… in at least 41 states, inmates can be charged room and board for prison stays… in all states except Hawaii and the District of Columbia, there’s a fee for the electronic monitoring devices defendants and offenders are ordered to wear.”
The report notes that jailing people for, in effect, non-payment of fines can create financial challenges as governments pay for that incarceration. Read and hear the story via Vermont Public Radio here: As Court Fees Rise, The Poor Are Paying The Price