Legal News

I Owe, I Owe, It?s Off to Jail I Go

By Ashby Jones

Around the country, court systems struggling to make ends meet have resorted to a variety of cost-cutting measures. They’re cutting staff, closing courthouse doors for several days a month, delaying trials, and leaving vacant judgeship positions unfilled.

An NYT story out Tuesday highlights one of the more controversial tactics taken by states to address their financial problems. In several states, judges and court systems are going hard after folks who haven’t paid all their court fees and fines. In many instances, judges are doling out jail time to those who can’t cough up the money.

The article’s lead anecdote is illustrative. In 1996, a Florida woman was convicted of writing bad checks. She later paid restitution, performed community service and thought she was finished with the criminal justice system. This year, however, she received a letter from the court telling her that she was once again facing jail time - this time for failing to pay $240 in leftover court fees and fines, which she says she cannot afford. "I would say there is an even more dramatic focus on those funds now," said Beth Allman, the spokeswoman for the Florida Association of Court Clerks.

Advocates for the poor have urged other states not to follow Florida's example of squeezing defendants harder to make up for budget cuts. Rebekah Diller, deputy director of the justice program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, says judges, should not become "debt collectors in robes.”

Florida, however, has continued to tighten its grip. Since 2004, the Legislature has required courts to support their operating expenses substantially through fees collected by county clerks.

And those who can’t pay face jail time. Florida officials justify the sanction and get around “debtor’s prison” accusations by arguing that, technically, they are jailing people because they violated court orders.

Charles A. Francis, the chief judge of the state's Second Judicial Circuit, said most judges found Collections Court "the most unpleasant part of the job." The judges try not to jail people over fees, he said, but added, "Do you allow the orders of your court to go ignored?"

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 07, 2009 (boomark / email).