“... the overreliance on fines and fees for government revenue creates powerful incentives to impose excessive financial penalties, with disastrous consequences on people who cannot pay... perpetuating cycles of debt, instability, and criminal legal system involvement that hurts families and the public at large.”
American Civil Liberties Union
Introduced in June 2021:
Successfully voted out of the House Judiciary Committee on 6/15/2021.
Publicly supported by Delaware Courts, Attorney General's Office, Office of Defense Services, and community groups.
Referred to the House Appropriations Committee for funding.
By suspending licenses for unpaid fines and fees, the state endangers access to jobs. Asking whether an applicant has reliable transportation is a question on job applications. Some jobs even more specifically ask if the candidate has a car/license. In addition to making it more difficult to enter the job market, license suspensions cause many working people to lose the jobs that they already have.
In neighboring New Jersey, “a task force ... found that following a license suspension, 42% of people lost their jobs as a result of the suspension. Of those who lost their jobs, 45% could not find another job, and this effect was most pronounced for seniors and low-income people. Of those who were able to find new employment, 88% reported decreased wages.”
This is a lose-lose situation for both debtors and the state. Without employment, residents are less able to pay off court debt, contribute less to the Delaware tax base and local economy, and families are forced to rely more on government assistance.
Many youth simply have no reasonable means for paying court fines and fees. Imposing a financial penalty, in fact, undermines the rehabilitative goals of the juvenile justice system. Pressure to seek long work hours is associated with lower grades and higher dropout rates, which are precisely the outcomes that the system should be looking to avoid.
The minimal revenue generated through collection of court debt from minors is insignificant to the overall budget of the courts – it is only significant to those individuals who are harmed by it.
Of the 5,807 individuals admitted to Delaware’s Level V facilities in the first six months of 2018, 724 (roughly 12.5%) were incarcerated at least in part for failure to pay outstanding fines. Of these, 595 individuals were convicted of failure to pay in addition to another charge, while 129 had no other criminal convictions. Undoubtedly, many of those 129 people were indigent and stood no chance at affording the court debt imposed on them.
By insisting on collecting fines and fees even from those with no ability to pay, Delaware has committed to producing enormously inequitable outcomes for its most impoverished residents. When an individual is unable to generate enough income to pay off their court debt, the penalties quickly begin to add up – late fees, arrests, and imprisonment can all be a result of simply being unable to pay off the costs associated with a misdemeanor charge.
This policy cannot be justified through the revenue it creates due to how expensive and inefficient the system is. In 2015, the state of Delaware spent $39,080/inmate per year, so any prison sentence for unpaid court debt is a significant net loss for the state. Even among those who do not face detention, studies have shown that every dollar collected through fines and fees is 121 times more expensive to collect than the same dollar collected through taxes.
Most fees imposed by Delaware courts are ostensibly collected to support specific funds, such as the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes or the Public Defender Fee. However, due to a lack of tracking and oversight, there is almost no public knowledge of how the collected fines and fees are dispersed. In fact, the Town of Newport was found in 2019 to be diverting money from the Victim's Compensation Fund to the general fund for town expenses.
As long as Delaware continues to charge its residents fines and fees, accountability for where that money goes and how it is used is necessary to prevent corruption and misuse.
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