In this brief and accompanying video, we discuss how fines and fees in the criminal legal system jeopardize Black Americans’ ability to move into and stay in the middle class. We also discuss specific criminal legal practices and revenue policies that state and local changemakers can adopt to reduce harms and invest in their residents’ futures.
What We Found
Our research revealed that Black households face criminal legal system fines and fees at the highest rates, potentially exacerbating racial income and wealth disparities.
Fines and fees are rarely scaled to people’s ability to pay them. And not being able to afford fines or fees can have severe consequences, including interest and additional penalties, suspension of one’s driver’s license, and jail time. People charged fines and fees, and their families, can be pushed into financial precarity to make payments and avoid those consequences. Criminal legal debts can therefore disproportionately strain the well-being of Black households, jeopardizing their access to basic needs like groceries, housing, and health care and disrupting their paths to financial stability and wealth-building.
Recommendations from experts on how to address these challenges include the following:
- eliminating certain administrative fees levied by courts and incarceration facilities
- assessing all people’s ability to pay, and waiving fines, fees, and outstanding debts for those with limited means
- offering robust community service, substance abuse treatment, and education or apprenticeship opportunities in lieu of imposing fines or fees
- untethering revenue-raising incentives from policing and court practices and replacing them with general tax revenues
These strategies offer a road map to reform the intended and unintended consequences of criminal legal fines and fees and support the thriving of Black families nationwide.
How We Did It
We analyzed quantitative survey data on households that reported having incurred criminal legal fines, fees, and outstanding debts in previous years from the Urban Institute’s Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey. We also wove in insights from three qualitative interviews with criminal legal system experts and contextualize our findings with evidence from previous research on the impacts of criminal legal fines and fees.
The Black Family Thriving Initiative aims to amplify the intergenerational strengths of Black people and families and reframe the narrative of being Black and middle class in America. It also aims to describe the distinct challenges Black families, specifically Black middle-class families, face in achieving the American dream for themselves and their children.
