Criminal Justice Debt, Fines & Fees Archives

Group Letter to Department of Justice Requesting Updated Guidance on Juvenile Fees & Fines

June 8, 2021

Group Letter to the Department of Justice re: Request to Reissue and Update Advisory to Eliminate Juvenile Fees and Fines

Group Letter to CT Regarding Prison Phone Justice

September 17, 2020

Letter to urge the Connecticut legislature to pass legislation during its special session this September to stop charging families for prison phone calls.

Group Comments to the FCC Regarding Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services

September 27, 2021

WC Docket No. 12-375

Group Comments to FCC Regarding WT Docket 12-375

January 22, 2021

Group reply letter to the FCC urging adoption of final rules to reduce the cost of phone calls for the incarcerated and their families

Fines and Fees Reforms: Recommendations to the Biden/Harris Administration

April 7, 2021

Group Letter to Biden-Harris Administration on Fines and Fees Reforms, Apr. 7, 2021

Comments to MBTA Regarding Proposed Fare Evasion Regulations

April 30, 2021

These comments highlight the compounding harm that debt-based barriers to driver’s license renewals cause to low-income people, and particularly to low-income people of color.

Coalition Letter in Support of the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2019

June 11, 2019

Organizations and individuals that represent a wide variety of views on many issues, but that stand united on the need to reduce the exorbitant rates for telephone calls from prisons.

Amicus Brief: BBBB Bonding Corp. v. Caldwell

August 5, 2021

Amicus Brief in Support of Respondent Kiara Caldwell

Criminal Justice Debt - How States Can Help

Issue Brief

Group Letter urging the CA Franchise Tax Board to suspend tax refund offsets for collection of state and local debts

March 18, 2022

Our organizations write to ask the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) to immediately suspend all income tax intercepts through July 31, 2022, for non-tax debts owed to state and local governments. The impacts of the COVID-19 public health emergency and resultant economic crises that led to the FTB suspending tax intercepts in 2020 and 2021 have…

The High Cost of a Fresh Start: A State-by-State Analysis of Court Debt as a Bar to Record Clearing

February 1, 2022

For the nearly one-third of adults in the U.S. with a record of arrest or conviction, their record is not simply part of their past but a continuing condition that impacts nearly every aspect of their life.

The High Cost of a Fresh Start: New Report Examines Court Debt as a Barrier to Clearing a Conviction Record

February 14, 2022

February 14, 2022 Download the report: https://bit.ly/rpt-High-Cost-Fresh-Start-22 BOSTON – A new report from the National Consumer Law Center and the Collateral Consequences Resource Center explores the extent to which court debt—such as criminal fines, fees, costs, and restitution—is a barrier to record clearing that prevents poor and low-income people from getting a second chance. For…

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