Fines, fees used to fund criminal justice too take a toll on poor

While the nation’s imprisoned population has declined since peaking in 2009, incarceration levels still remain extraordinarily high, reports the USA Today.

Continued efforts to lower incarceration rates will stall unless we address the role that revenue plays in the daily operation of police departments, courts, jails and prisons across the country. So much of these entities’ time and effort goes into generating revenue that the goals of pursuing justice and improving public safety often get pushed to the side.

A new Brennan Center for Justice report delves into the interlocking economic incentives that underpin our justice system. Many of these practices rely on a simple calculus: More people in the justice system means more dollars for agencies, governments and contracted for-profit firms

Some of the revenue streams flow straight out of the pockets of the people who are ticketed, searched, arrested, jailed, tried and sent to jail or prison, while others arise from a growing trade in bed space at correctional and detention facilities.

Michael Brown brought attention to Ferguson, Missouri

A 2020 study found that when a municipality increased the percentage of its revenue coming from law enforcement fines, fees and forfeitures, that rise was associated with statistically significant decreases in clearance rates (the ratio of arrests to reported crimes) for both violent and property crimes.

That is an unacceptable trade-off. It’s time for the government agencies involved in the criminal justice system at all levels to examine the revenue-generating parts of their work and its true costs, alongside the budget holes they are meant to fill.

In the face of shrinking state or federal monetary aid, eroded property and sales tax bases, and public distaste for tax increases, the pressure to bring in revenue has been intense, to put it mildly. Even so, every program, every policy that now privileges revenue over safety and justice can be realigned. The solutions to these problems exist. They just need people of courage to apply them.

The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, drew national attention to user-funded justice – the city had pushed the police department and the courts to maximize funding potential of fines and fees. 

In fiscal years 2010 and 2011, about 12% of Ferguson's general fund revenue came from fines and fees. By fiscal year 2015, the city was budgeting for 23% of its revenues to come from fines and fees.

Civil asset forfeiture no longer hits just drug kingpins

Civil asset forfeiture, too, has metastasized into a major revenue source, going well beyond its onetime purpose of targeting drug kingpins. Law enforcement agencies seize and retain peoples’ cash, vehicles, homes and other items on a suspicion of their connection to an offense without having to prove the connection.

Take Minnesota’s Metro Gang Strike Force. An investigation revealed that its members were stopping and searching people who were clearly not involved in gang activity, and then taking or buying seized items for personal use – like televisions, tools, appliances and jet skis.

Law enforcement agencies have also been earning revenue from bed space. Some counties offer open beds in local jails to state or federal authorities whose own facilities are overcrowded, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Marshals. Counties can arrange for the federal government to pay them to maintain a “guaranteed minimum” number of beds in their facilities. Some expand their facilities or build new ones to serve this market. Or they can act as intermediaries between federal agencies and for-profit firms, agreeing to house federal detainees and then subcontracting with a company that puts those people in their facilities. 

Rebalance the scales of justice   

While it is easy to agree that governments should not be extracting money from the most vulnerable, nor that agencies be rewarded for securing overly harsh punishments, the primary challenge to reform is that these financial motivations – and their budgetary effects – have become persistent and self-reinforcing. Nevertheless, we can rebalance the scales of justice, and we must. 

For example, policymakers can push back against the growing market in bed space and take steps to reduce correctional and detention populations safely. At the same time, where housing deficits still exist, negotiations and contracting should be subjected to increased transparency and accountability.

Lawmakers can also choose to eliminate civil asset forfeiture. Alternatively, states can redirect forfeiture proceeds away from law enforcement.

Legislatures can eliminate all fees, with outstanding debts automatically forgiven.

To realign our priorities, Congress, state legislatures, local governments and law enforcement agencies must work together to diminish the lure of existing financial incentives for agencies and municipalities that are often stretched too thin. The justice system should be funded equitably by taxpayers, all of whom are served by it – not primarily by the community’s poorest, most marginalized members.

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GateHouse: Lifting barriers to success starts with reinstating driving privileges

Matthew T. Mangino

GateHouse Media

August 7, 2020

Paul Bell was a preacher in Georgia in the late 1960s. The weekend before Thanksgiving 1968, Bell was driving to one of the three churches he oversaw when 5-year-old Sherry Capes crashed her bicycle into the side of Bell’s car.

Bell didn’t have insurance. At the time, Georgia law provided that the registration and license of an uninsured motorist involved in an accident would be suspended unless the motorist posted a bond to cover the cost of any claim.

Bell fought his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court contending that before his license was suspended, he was entitled to a hearing to show he was not at fault. In 1971, the High Court ruled that the holder of a driver’s license has a property interest in that license and that the license may not be suspended or revoked without due process of law.

The requirements of due process include notice and an opportunity to be heard at a hearing. Due process may also require an opportunity to confront witnesses and the right to be represented by counsel.

In Bell’s case the Supreme Court concluded that once issued, a driver’s license was essential in the pursuit of Bell’s livelihood. Bell traveled to three different churches to serve his rural congregations. For everyone else, it meant a driver’s license was more than just a piece of paper - it had value and could not be arbitrarily taken.

Access to a driver’s license has an enormous impact on prisoner reentry. More than 620,000 people are released from federal and state prisons each year and return to their communities. While these and other individuals have already served their prison or jail sentences, are currently serving probation or parole, or have completely exited criminal supervision, they still face numerous barriers to reintegrating into society. Those barriers are known as the collateral consequences of their conviction.

According to the National Institute of Justice, there are more than 44,000 collateral consequences nationwide, including obtaining a driver’s license.

Nearly 50 years after Bell’s case, a number of states still impose mandatory driver’s license suspensions for certain drug offenses, without due process of law, regardless of whether the crime has anything to do with driving. In fact, Title 23 of the United States Code provides for withholding federal funding from any state that does not revoke or suspend the driver’s licenses of individuals convicted of drug offenses.

A study conducted by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators revealed that more than one third of all driving privilege suspensions are for non-highway safety reasons.

A driver’s license is not a privilege - it is a necessity. Individuals who live in rural areas with limited access to public transportation - and there are a lot of such across the country - are essentially stranded without access to even basic necessities without the help of neighbors, family and friends.

When Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation eliminating driver’s license suspensions for non-driving infractions he said, “We need to break down even more unnecessary and especially difficult roadblocks to success and stability. Having a valid driver’s license often is the key to finding and keeping a job.”

The recent efforts to reverse the barriers to obtaining a driver’s license didn’t stop with Pennsylvania. California followed, ending the practice of suspending licenses for unpaid traffic fines, while officials in Michigan wiped out millions of dollars in debt from unpaid “driver responsibility fees” that led to thousands of license suspensions.

On July 1, a new Illinois law took effect that eliminates driver’s license suspensions for most non-moving violations, reinstating driving privileges for thousands of people.

Progress is being made, but there is more work to be done.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book “The Executioner’s Toll, 2010” was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter at @MatthewTMangino.

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GateHouse: Driver’s license suspension short-sighted and counterproductive

Matthew T. Mangino

GateHouse Media

March 15, 2019

In 1999, Steve Smith was charged in Pennsylvania with underage drinking. He was 14-years-old. Steve Smith is not his real name, but his story is real and tragic.

The penalty for underage drinking in Pennsylvania includes a driver’s license suspension. Due to Smith’s poor decision as a child he was ineligible for a license when he turned 16. Smith never got a driver’s license, but he drove.

He was convicted of driving under suspension in 2003 and again in 2006. Each time his suspension was extended. In 2013 he was convicted of driving without a license. Earlier this year he was arrested again for driving under suspension.

Now, Smith gainfully employed for more than nine years, married and the father of four children faces six months in jail - 21 years after a youthful indiscretion.

Suspending an individual’s driver’s license for non-driving offenses is short-sighted and counterproductive.

In Smith’s case it was for conduct as a 14-year-old. For some it may be the result of using marijuana, failing to pay parking tickets or being too poor to pay non-traffic fines or court costs.

In Alabama, a federal lawsuit was recently filed challenging the practice of suspending the driver’s licenses of people who cannot pay traffic tickets as a violation of the 14th Amendment by “punishing persons simply because they are poor.”

According to The Associated Press, the federal lawsuit seeks to prohibit the suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of fines. The suit also asks the court to require state agencies to reinstate any driver’s license previously suspended for nonpayment.

A U.S. Department of Justice investigation of the police in Ferguson, Missouri - known for the violent unrest after a police officer involved killing of an unarmed black teen - “found that in Ferguson, a small city with a population of just 21,000, more than 16,000 people had outstanding arrest warrants issued by the court as of December 2014,” with many of those warrants having “nothing to do with criminal behavior.”

A recent forum at the John Jay College in New York entitled “Cash Register Justice” explored the exploitation of the poor to finance criminal justice costs through onerous fines and court costs for otherwise minor offenses.

Research data shared at the forum, suggested that in May 2018, an estimated 7 million Americans had their driver’s licenses suspended because of unpaid fines and fees. According to The Crime Report, 85 percent of Americans drive themselves to work.

Forty-three states have laws that suspend driver’s licenses, revoke licenses, or deny renewals for unpaid fines and fees. Defenders of these practices claim that this is the only coercive tool at their disposal, but The Crime Report points to statistics that say it does not work.

Last year Mississippi stopped suspending people’s driver’s licenses purely because they had not paid court fines and fees. Licenses in Mississippi continue to be suspended for people who do not respond to citations or if a judge holds someone in contempt for failing to pay fines.

A recent California study found “a litany of practices and policies that turn a citation offense into a poverty sentence,” with add-on fees for minor offenses sometimes doubling or quadrupling the original fines. According to NPR, the report says that once a person’s license is suspended, they become even more unable to pay their debts, entering “long cycles of poverty that are difficult, if not impossible to overcome.”

In some states, the court will let an offender spend time in jail in exchange for paying a fine or court costs - a debtor’s prison for those cloaked in poverty and unable to pay.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner’s Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.

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The Vindicator: Pennsylvania must stop arbitrary suspension of driving privileges

Matthew T. Mangino

The Vindicator

September 29, 2018

Paul Bell was a preacher in Georgia in the late 1960s. The weekend before Thanksgiving 1968, Bell was driving to one of the three churches he oversaw when 5-year-old Sherry Capes crashed her bicycle into the side of Bell’s car.

Bell didn’t have insurance. At the time, Georgia law provided that the registration and license of an uninsured motorist involved in an accident would be suspended unless the motorist posted a bond to cover the cost of any claim.

Bell fought his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court contending he was entitled to a hearing to show he was not at fault, before his license was suspended. In 1971, the High Court ruled that the holder of a driver’s license has a property interest in that license and that the license may not be suspended or revoked without due process of law.

Due process

The requirements of due process include notice and an opportunity to be heard at a hearing. Due process may also require an opportunity to confront witnesses and the right to be represented by counsel.

In Bell’s case the court concluded that once issued, a driver’s license is essential in the pursuit of his livelihood. Bell traveled to three different churches to serve his rural congregations. For everyone else, it meant a driver’s license was more than just a piece of paper; it had value and could not be arbitrarily taken.

Nearly 50 years later, Pennsylvania is one of 12 states that still imposes mandatory driver’s license suspensions for certain drug offenses, without due process of law, regardless of whether the crime has anything to do with driving.

Between 2011 and 2016, Pennsylvania suspended the driver’s licenses of about 149,000 people for “drug convictions unrelated to traffic safety,” according to the York Daily Record. Those individuals are essentially deprived of the ability to work, attend school or care for themselves and their family.

A driver’s license is not a privilege – it is a necessity. Individuals who live in rural areas with limited access to public transportation – and there are a lot of such areas in Pennsylvania – are essentially stranded without access to even basic necessities without the help of neighbors, family and friends.

Gainful employment

A lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania by Equal Justice Under Law alleges that it is critical for people who have criminal convictions to maintain gainful employment, pursue education, keep doctor’s appointments and take care of family members. Imposing “additional and debilitating” measures against a driver whose license has been suspended “make(s) successful post-conviction rehabilitation a near impossibility.”

Even public safety is at risk when the legislature “piles on” drug offenders.

According to the lawsuit filed by Equal Justice Under Law, drivers with suspended licenses often drive out of necessity even while their licenses remain suspended, requiring law enforcement to devote time to policing noncompliance rather than focusing on legitimate threats to traffic safety.

A study of suspended and revoked driver’s licenses in Pennsylvania found “[t]here is significant and increasing frustration in the law enforcement community as a result of the increased administrative workload and time and energy required for non-driving related offenses,” suggesting that non-traffic related license suspensions burden public safety resources rather than increases public safety.

Legislation

Gov. Tom Wolf supports legislation to eliminate non-driving related driver’s license suspensions. GOP State Rep. Rick Saccone is the primary sponsor of House Bill 163, which would remove driver’s license suspensions for non-driving offenses. The House overwhelmingly passed the bill with a vote of 192-3.

The measure is now in the Senate Transportation Committee.

The measure is a common sense plan for alleviating the burden on drivers, law enforcement and the courts. A significant majority of the states, including Ohio, have taken action to acknowledge the arbitrary act of taking an individual’s driving privileges – it is not only a bad idea but unconstitutional. Pennsylvania needs to follow suit.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book “The Executioner’s Toll, 2010” was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino

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Tennessee prosecutor will no longer pursue driver's license violations

Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk  he would stop prosecuting a large swath of driver's license violations effective immediately, a new policy that could divert 12,000 charges out of Nashville courtrooms over the next year, reported the Tennessean.

Funk called the move, part of an agreement with the sheriff's office, a "win-win-win." He said it would save the city money while lightening the workload for judges, court staffers and prosecutors.

It also promises to keep thousands of people out of the criminal justice system and away from what Funk called "the collateral consequences" of a criminal charge. Instead, they will be routed through Steering Clear, a sheriff's office program that helps people get their licenses reinstated.

If the program functions as intended, proponents say it would mean fewer people driving illegally on Nashville streets.

In the past, someone who came to court with a misdemeanor charge like driving on a suspended license would need to be booked and fingerprinted. They would have a mug shot taken and appear before a judge, accruing a round of court fees and fines on top of the costs of replacing their licenses.

Often, offenders are unable to pay, so they continue driving illegally, racking up a pile of menial driving violations and corresponding fees that make progress even less likely.

"It's a vicious cycle. It keeps going and going and going," said Maria Toro, the Steering Clear program manager. "We're trying to stop that right at the beginning."

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More than 7 million people nationwide had driver’s licenses suspended for failure to pay fines

More than 7 million people nationwide may have had their driver’s licenses suspended for failure to pay court or administrative debt, a practice that advocates say unfairly punishes the poor, the Washington Post reports. The total number could be much higher based on the population of states that did not or could not provide data, according to The Crime Report. 

At least 41 states and Washington, D.C., suspend or revoke driver’s licenses after drivers fail to pay traffic tickets or appear in court to respond to such tickets. Driver’s license suspensions were criticized by anti-poverty advocates after a 2015 federal investigation focused on Ferguson, Mo., showed that law enforcement used fines to raise revenue for state and local governments. 

Last year, the nonprofit Equal Justice Under Law filed class-action lawsuits against the states of Michigan and Montana for what they call  wealth-based suspension schemes, and filed another suit this year against the state of Pennsylvania for suspending licenses solely because of drug related offenses. According to the organization’s director Phil Telfeyan, a former civil rights attorney for the Department of Justice, Michigan suspended 397,826 licenses in 2010 alone for failure to pay court debt or failure to appear.

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