Criminal Justice

Consumer Issues for Justice-Involved Individuals

The criminal justice system and the collateral consequences that flow from it disproportionately harm low-income people and people of color. NCLC uses consumer law tools to stop abusive practices perpetrated against justice-involved people, including imposition of unaffordable fines and fees, debt-based barriers to criminal record clearing, harsh debt collection tactics, and predatory profiteering by public and private actors that impose unfair charges on captive consumers.

Captive Concerns: Incarcerated People Face Obstacles to Reporting Consumer Abuses

July 22, 2024

Consumer protection laws apply to incarcerated people. But because of incarcerated people’s limited and highly regulated contact with the outside world, they struggle to report consumer problems such as identity theft and fraud, as well as abusive practices perpetrated by the private companies that they must rely on for essential services and goods within correctional…

Read More about: Captive Concerns: Incarcerated People Face Obstacles to Reporting Consumer Abuses
November 20, 2023
February 1, 2022

Recent

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Amicus Brief to First Circuit Supporting FCC’s Rule on Incarcerated People’s Communications Services

April 21, 2025

Comments on Bureau of Prisons’ Proposed Rule on the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program

February 18, 2025

New Report Examines the Harms of Seizing Tax Refunds to Collect Criminal Justice Debt  

January 30, 2025

Incarcerated People Are Frequent Targets of Identity Theft

January 27, 2025

Robbed Behind Bars: Identity Theft Committed Against Incarcerated Victims

January 27, 2025

Group Letter to the FCC re: Implementation of the Martha Wright Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, WC Docket Nos. 12-375, 23-62

December 17, 2024

CFPB Orders Money Transfer Provider to Return $3 Million to Incarcerated People and Their Families

November 14, 2024

Joint Comments to the FCC Regarding Incarcerated People’s Communications Services & Implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act

October 21, 2024

Medical Debt Behind Bars: New Report Examines the Impact of Medical Debt on Incarcerated People

September 10, 2024

Comments & Letters

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Comments on Bureau of Prisons’ Proposed Rule on the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program

February 18, 2025

Group Letter to the FCC re: Implementation of the Martha Wright Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, WC Docket Nos. 12-375, 23-62

December 17, 2024

Joint Comments to the FCC Regarding Incarcerated People’s Communications Services & Implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act

October 21, 2024

Comments on Proposed Medicaid and Medicare Program Rules Amending Definition of Custody for Purposes of Medicare Exclusion (CMS-1809-P)

September 9, 2024

Comments on FinCEN’s Proposed Rule on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Programs

September 3, 2024

Civil Rights Letter to the FCC in Support of Lower Prison Communication Rates

June 17, 2024

High Level Principles Regarding Connected Cars

May 23, 2024

Comments to the Bureau of Prisons Re: Proposed Rule on Money-Transfer Services

April 1, 2024

Comments on Treasury Department’s Request for Information on Financial Inclusion

February 20, 2024

Reports

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Medical Debt Behind Bars: The Punishing Impact of Copays, Fees, and Other Carceral Medical Debt

September 6, 2024

Digital Denials: How Abuse, Bias, and Lack of Transparency in Tenant Screening Harm Renters

September 26, 2023

Collection At All Costs: Examining the Intersection of Mass Incarceration and the Student Debt Crisis

July 12, 2022

Sentenced to a Life of Debt: It Is Time for a Reassessment of How Bankruptcy Law Intersects with Fines and Fees to Keep People in Debt

February 16, 2022

Commercialized (In)Justice Litigation Guide

June 1, 2020

Broken Records Redux: How Errors by Criminal Background Check Companies Continue to Harm Consumers Seeking Jobs and Housing

December 10, 2019

Report: Commercialized (In)Justice 2019

March 5, 2019

Criminal Justice Debt in the South: A Primer for the Southern Partnership to Reduce Debt

December 11, 2018

Confronting Criminal Justice Debt: A Guide for Policy Reform

September 6, 2016

Issue Briefs

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Robbed Behind Bars: Identity Theft Committed Against Incarcerated Victims

January 27, 2025

Captive Concerns: Incarcerated People Face Obstacles to Reporting Consumer Abuses

July 22, 2024

Zombie Records: How Sealed or Expunged Court Records in Tenant & Employment Screening Reports May Illegally Cost People Jobs & Housing

June 29, 2022

Criminal Justice Debt – How States Can Help

August 19, 2021

Testimony

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Joint Testimony Supporting MA I.D. Bill for People Released from Prison

January 25, 2024

Testimony in Support of MA S. 1559

November 2, 2021

Testimony supporting Massachusetts H. 1900, Telephone Service for Inmates

October 18, 2021

Maryland Testimony: Promoting Accuracy in Background Checks and Tenant Screening

February 3, 2021

Written Testimony before New York State’s Department of Financial Services, Division of Consumer Protection and Division of Criminal Justice Services, Bail Bond Reform Listening Session

Press Releases & News

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New Report Examines the Harms of Seizing Tax Refunds to Collect Criminal Justice Debt  

January 30, 2025

Incarcerated People Are Frequent Targets of Identity Theft

January 27, 2025

CFPB Orders Money Transfer Provider to Return $3 Million to Incarcerated People and Their Families

November 14, 2024

Medical Debt Behind Bars: New Report Examines the Impact of Medical Debt on Incarcerated People

September 10, 2024

Fair Chance in Employment Act Clears Committee Vote

January 31, 2024

Gov. Healey and Mass. Legislature Put Families Over Prison Profiteering with Free Phone Calls for Incarcerated People

November 20, 2023

New Report Examines How Abuse and Bias in Tenant Screening Harm Renters

September 26, 2023

Gov. Healey Issues Amendment to Provision that Would Make Communications from Prisons and Jails Free; Now the Legislature Must Act

August 9, 2023

The Freedom Side Podcast: Caroline Cohn Discusses Junk Fees and Mass Incarceration

March 2, 2023

From the NCLC Digital Library

Collection Actions

The only treatise to detail consumer defenses to debt buyer and creditor collection lawsuits on credit card, medical, criminal justice, and other consumer debts.

Read Chapter One