Get Out of Jail, Now Pay Up: Your Fines Are Waiting
Eliminating monetary penalties that accompany conviction may help ex-convicts get on their feet.
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When you're convicted of a crime in America, it's not just prison time you may face—there are fines, fees, and other cash penalties, too. And when you get out, they'll be waiting. Plus interest.
The plight of "Kathie" symbolizes everything that's wrong with this system, one that heaps a debt burden onto ex-convicts who don't have the means to pay. Kathie (a pseudonym) was a 49-year-old ex-convict at the time University of Washington sociologist Alexes Harris interviewed her in 2009. She was sharing a three-bedroom home with three of her four children, her estranged husband, and his father.