Last session, the Governor signed Assembly Bill 1869 which abolishes 23 administrative fees in the criminal system effective July 1, 2021. This news was applauded by Criminal Justice reformers throughout the State - including the Criminal Justice Committee here in San Diego. However, there was a certain amount of “shock and awe” at the October meeting of the CJ Committee when members came to realize that those found guilty of misdemeanors or more serious crimes have, for years, been required to pay administrative fees - in addition to fines for their crimes. Fees which accumulate beyond the individual’s ability to pay and put them in debt beyond their means. For some, this means a loss of their home and a poor credit rating that interferes with their ability to secure a loan to get them back into the mainstream of life.
Christie Hill from the ACLU talked about abolishing criminal administration fees in California. Debt Free Justice CA is one organization leading advocacy on this issue. Christie was part of the statewide coalition on fines and fees. Fees are charges that state and county governments place on people to recoup costs, e.g., payment plans, cost of incarceration, probation supervision fees. Fines are punishments for violations. Penalty assessments resemble fines, but the way they work is more like taxes, since they fund other things that are not related to the crime committed (for example, medevac helicopters). Restitution is restitution to the victim, such as to Walmart for petty theft.
Currently, California law permits counties to charge people administrative fees for diversion programs, drug and alcohol testing, civil assessments, record sealing, and even a fee for being put on a payment plan. These fees can quickly add up to thousands of dollars for a single person and pose significant barriers to reentry. Unpaid fees can be enforced via wage garnishment, bank levy, and tax refund intercept. People who cannot afford traffic fees can lose their licenses for not appearing in court or not paying, and can be arrested for driving on a suspended license.
For example, in criminal and traffic court, a single missed court date causes the immediate imposition of a $300 civil assessment fee, easily doubling the amount of fines and fees owed. The fee is extremely difficult to get rid of and remains in place even if the underlying case is dismissed. Processing and other add ons often add an additional $15 or $20 dollars.
Research by the coalition has shown that imposing fees on people in the criminal system is racist in practice, creates high pain because it leaves many with insurmountable debt, and is ultimately low gain because counties net little, if any, revenue from these fees. More pointedly, due to over-policing and racial bias throughout the system, the burden of these fees falls disproportionately on Black and Latinx communities.
Further examination by members of the Committee revealed “Community Service Administration Fees” of $10 - $306 charged to those who are criminally charged. As of July 1, all phone calls from San Diego County Sheriff's Department jails will be free. Prior to that change, the inmates had to pay $0.33/minute for all calls. Public Defenders are not FREE! The accused pays a fee whether they are found guilty or not.
Ankle bracelets are promoted as a humane alternative to jail. But private companies charge defendants hundreds of dollars a month to wear the surveillance devices. If people can’t pay, they may end up behind bars. In San Diego an ankle bracelet comes with a $20 per day charge. Some released individuals wear these for months or years.
An ankle monitor must be charged twice a day. For the parolees working or socializing, keeping the ankle monitor charged is very inconvenient. Parolees must sit by an outlet and charge the monitor for two hours. Needless to say, not every worksite can accommodate a parolee in this sense and this might be pretty awkward for parolees who are charging their monitor while at a local coffee shop.
Imagine going into Starbucks or Panera with 2% left on your ankle monitor before it goes off and sends an alert, but every outlet is taken. What do you do?
You scour the room for the friendliest (and perhaps least judgmental) looking person, tap that person on the shoulder and nervously say, “Excuse me. May I charge my ankle monitor on this outlet? I see that you’re busy, but my monitor is about to die and if that happens then an alert is sent out and I’ll get re-arrested. Oh, no, no, don’t worry. I promise I’m not an ax murderer!”
Our CJ committee members began to ask where this practice of charging fees--on top of fines--began and why weren’t we more aware. The answer may lie in the 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment which prohibited slavery and servitude in all circumstances “except as a punishment for crime.” This loophole resulted in Southern states passing the black codes to criminalize activities that would make it easy to imprison African Americans, and effectively force them into servitude once more. Peonage, also called debt servitude, is a system where an employer compels a worker to pay off a debt with work. Legally, peonage was outlawed by Congress in 1867. However, after Reconstruction, many Southern Black men were swept into peonage through different methods, and the system was not completely eradicated until the 1940s. The most corrupt and abusive peonage occurred in concert with Southern state and county governments. In the South, many Black men were picked up for minor crimes or on trumped-up charges, and, when faced with staggering fines and court fees, forced to work for a local employer who would pay their fines for them. Southern states also leased their convicts en masse to local industrialists. The paperwork and debt record of individual prisoners was often lost, and these men found themselves trapped in inescapable situations.
Fees were the easiest way to reinstitute servitude, as African Americans earned so little that paying a steep fine was out of the question for most of them. Failure to pay fines allowed the state to order them to work off their balances, a system called debt peonage. Typically this work was agricultural in nature, just as Black Americans had performed while enslaved. The Black codes not only forced African Americans to work for free but also essentially placed them under surveillance. Their comings and goings, meetings and church services were all monitored by the authorities and local officials. Black people needed passes and White sponsors to move from place to place or to leave town. Collectively, these regulations codified a permanent underclass status for African Americans.
The Criminal Justice Committee is exploring ways to partner with organizations like Debt Free Justice CA, and the Coalition For Police Accountability and Transparency (CPAT) in order to maintain an ongoing awareness of policing policies and criminal justice issues that reflect systemic racism in California.