The Alabama Statehouse is seen is seen in this 2023 photo. Legislators have turned to fines and fees to keep the state court system solvent, costs that tend to fall hardest on those least able to pay. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)
Criminal justice reform advocates discussed the impact of fines and fees on marginalized Alabamians, as well as possible solutions, at a panel discussion this month.
Alabama lawmakers in recent years have enacted dozens of fines and fees, many through local bills, that increase the cost of going through the criminal justice system or in getting a license plate for a motor vehicle. While some fees go to victim restitution, others are levied to pay for basic operations of the court system. Most fall disproportionately on those least able to pay.
“What we notice is, as individuals in a vulnerable population, when they have an intersection with justice, that is normally not a day of celebration,” said Richard Williams, a pastor of the Alabama-West Florida Conference United Methodist Church, at the event sponsored by Alabama Values, a nonprofit that advocates for justice reform. “That is not normally a day that is celebrated upon, but it is normally a day that has a cost.”
Some are intangible, which includes the consequence of a forgone job opportunity, according to Williams, but also the cost of having to pay for access to the criminal legal system.
“We see that there is a cost that happens by how much it costs to be in the justice system,” Williams said. “And what we notice is that individuals are not aware of that cost, and that the system requires them to pay.”
Alabama 11th in terms of states that rely most on fines and fees, according to a report from the Urban Institute. The state generates almost 0.4% of state and local revenues from penalties and assessments.
A 2023 Alabama Reflector investigation found several bills quietly passed in the Alabama Legislature that authorized fines and fees in local areas. One created a warrant recall fee for the municipal court in Northport, Alabama, which allows the municipality to charge people $100 for their failure to appear warrants to be recalled.
Another bill allowed Pike and Coffee counties to impose additional court costs on top of those that are already listed in statute. There was a fee for general violations for people charged with a crime that totaled $450, while the fee for getting convicted of driving under the influence was $2,100.
Those bills that levied fines and fees are in addition to those already listed in state statute. One rule in the books requires people to pay the court $92 for a traffic violation while a misdemeanor charge will be $117.
A 2018 Alabama Appleseed report in 2018 that surveyed 980 people from 41 counties throughout the state and found that 65% owe fines and fees to municipal courts. Most of those in the survey owed about $2,000, but at least one person owed $250,000.
In that same Alabama Appleseed report, about 83% of those who responded to the survey said they had forgone necessities, including rent, food and even child support payments to pay court-imposed fines and fees.
“We have seen it impact individuals, not having an ability to afford transportation, which ultimately ends up affecting their employment opportunities, their ability to maintain the employment they have,” said Aylia McKee, chief public defender for Montgomery County.
About 38% said that they committed a subsequent crime to pay off their court debt.
“Financial restraints can also be a barrier to participation in some of the programs that are available to individuals in the court system,” McKee said. “Certain diversionary programs that require a fee in order to participate, even for first-time offenders.”
The state offers diversionary programs mainly for nonviolent and low-level offenses that allow dismissal of charges if they complete rehabilitation or counseling programs. But those programs can be expensive for participants. A bill passed in the 2023 legislative session increased the participation fee for a pretrial diversion program in Coffee and Pike counties from $850 to $2,000.
Alabama Appleseed’s report stated that 20% of respondents had declined diversion programs because they could not afford the accompanying fee.
Judges have some discretion in the amount to impose for fines and fees based on the financial situations of defendants they oversee. Financial penalties for some offenses, like victim restitution, cannot be waived or reduced, but in other cases, courts can consider a person’s financial status when rendering a verdict.
Tiffany McCord, a judge for the state’s 15th Judicial Circuit, which includes Montgomery County, said people in the criminal justice system should know “that you can ask for your fines and court costs to be remitted.”
“We want people to know, and to understand, that you can ask to do community service instead of paying fines and court costs,” McCord said.
“Some of the biggest troubles with the discrimination of fines is the failure to provide information about an individual’s ability to pay,” McKee said. “And that falls squarely with defense counsel in providing that information. Gathering the amount of social history and personal information about someone’s background is extremely important in determining what is going to be fair.”
However, people must disclose that information.
“I find that people have difficulties answering tough questions about their finances in an open forum,” McCord said. “It is embarrassing to say that my water is off to a courtroom of 50 people. It is embarrassing to say that my lights are off. It is embarrassing to say that I didn’t even have gas money to get to court, or that I walked to court. It is embarrassing to say, ‘I don’t know how to feed my children.’”
Work must be done to get beyond that barrier.
“Individuals literally hide that, so they can literally have some sense of dignity,” Williams said. “One of the things that we can we have had to do, is we have had to create those safe spaces where we have had to tell individuals, ‘I am not going to tell anyone.’”