Even for something as minor as running a red light or
driving with expired inspection stickers, not paying off the citation can
result in an arrest warrant, a suspended license and, in extreme cases, jail time.
Throughout the county, there is more than $350 million in
unpaid court debt on roughly half a million cases dating back to 1970,
according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts [AOPC]. The debt
includes fines and fees left unpaid by people of all income levels.
Revenue from fines and fees funds multiple levels of
government, due in large part to lawmakers imposing court fees as an
alternative to raising taxes.
State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, is the Republican chair of
the Senate Judiciary Committee. According to Baker, there are two reasons the
state has added costs and surcharges to the justice system for years. First,
the belief that wrongdoers should contribute to the costs of running the legal
system and supportive services. And second, the need to generate revenue
outside of raising taxes. “This is one of many nontraditional means that have
drawn support in enabling our state to provide necessary services and meet
public expectations,” she wrote in an email to PublicSource.
Over the past six months, PublicSource spoke to people
throughout Allegheny County struggling to pay their court debt on a range of offenses.
One 33-year-old woman from South Side is slowly paying off
four traffic tickets from 2009. She estimates she still owes $1,100.
A 46-year-old man who lives in the East End said he owes
more than $20,000 in fines and fees related to low-level drug offenses. He is
in long-term recovery and is working toward a degree in social work. His last
arrest was in 2014.
A 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student had a warrant
issued for his arrest after he ignored an August 2019 citation for driving a
friend’s car that didn’t have valid registration or inspection. He is now on a
monthly payment plan to settle the $250 charge.
Evans Moore, a Pittsburgh-based organizer for the criminal
justice reform organization Families Against Mandatory Minimums [FAMM], said
situations where people cannot pay their court debt are too common. “Folks’
lives are being stymied because they can’t pay their fines and fees,” he said.
“You get caught in this never-ending cycle of the criminal justice system.”
In 2018, Pennsylvania courts collected $444 million in
fines and fees, roughly $35 million of which came from Allegheny County. Even
so, the state has some $3 billion in unpaid monies on the books.
While fines are monetary punishment for an offense, fees
(also known as costs or surcharges) are administrative charges that counties
and states impose as additional sources of revenue. Fees, which fund items
ranging from the court’s computer system to emergency medical services, are not
meant to be punitive. Yet for many offenses, the cost of fees outweighs the
fine, in some cases many times over.
Pittsburgh Magisterial District Judge Richard King said very
few people are unable to pay their court costs; they choose not to. Courts can
administer payment plans based on what a person is able to pay, sometimes as
little as $5 a month.
“They usually always have an ability to pay like $5 a month
or something, but they don’t want to do it,” said King whose jurisdiction
includes neighborhoods such as Allentown, Beltzhoover and Knoxville.
Yet several judges, including King, agreed that the same
cost can have a drastically different impact on different individuals. To
people with means, paying $300 is only temporarily inconvenient, said
Magisterial District Judge Bruce Boni of McKees Rocks. “But a $300 cost for
someone who is virtually indigent can be catastrophic.”
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