DEBT FREE JUSTICE

Juvenile legal system costs, fees, and fines undermine public safety, harm youth and families, and create economic and racial disparities. The Debt Free Justice Bill is a national collaboration of individuals, organizations, and communities to abolish these fees and fines. 

Currently, a young person charged with even a minor offense can face financial obligations such as administrative court costs, diversion program costs, behavioral health assessments fees, electronic ankle monitor costs, detention and probation supervision fees, and even the cost of their own public defender or prosecutor. This bill removes all those financial burdens but leaves in place actual consequences for misbehavior.

NAACP TALKING POINTS

• Reduces Repeat Offenders: Every state prioritizes positive interventions for youth in the juvenile legal system, but fees and fines undercut positive development. Placing an impossible financial burden on young people to pay when they do not have their own income source undermines youth development. Requiring parents to pay leads to family tension, interfering with the positive support children need. When a child or their parents are unable to pay the fines and fees, it results in extra fines and additional criminal charges. This means you take a child who made a mistake and turn them into a lifelong criminal.
• Creates a More Fair System: When some families are able to afford the crimes their children commit and others cannot, it creates a system where some children are facing real consequences and others are not. This creates a system of unequal outcomes depending on the income of the family. Some children will not face any consequences and others will end up in a cycle of appearances and detentions for lack of ability to pay.
• A Growing Number of States are Eliminating Fines and Fees for Juveniles: Across the country, states have recognized that fees and fines harm children and families, undermine public safety, and don’t help state and local budgets. In the past few years, fee and fine elimination bills have passed into law in multiple states and localities, often with overwhelming bipartisan support.