A new study from the Institute for Justice, "The Price of Taxation by Citation," demonstrates the serious consequences not just for unfortunate citizens who have harmed no one, but for civic peace in general.
The study focuses on three Georgia cities that derive 14 to 25 percent of their revenue from such fines and fees: Morrow, Riverdale, and Clarkston.
"They churn through more cases than courts in similarly sized cities, and cases almost always end in a guilty finding, resulting in fines and fees revenue for the cities."
The Institute for Justice observes that "Our review of the sample cities' laws turned up few provisions that would meaningfully protect people from fines and fees abuse." For example, none have ordinances that would "Require municipal courts to provide jury trials when requested by a defendant, offer discovery or hold ability-to-pay hearings."
Neither do any "Require their courts to consider non-jail alternatives to fines and fees, such as community service, educational programs, or school or work attendance," or to "Prohibit courts from incarcerating or threatening to incarcerate people unable to pay fines and fees."
Taxation by citation also leads to "Lower levels of trust and higher levels of ill will toward city government on the part of residents. Trust in government is the level of confidence citizens hold that 'authorities will observe the rules of the game and serve the general interest.' Because many people's primary experiences with the justice system involve dealing with police officers and local courts, excessive use of fines and fees can foment.distrust, damage residents' relationships with law enforcement and harm judicial credibility."
It turns out that "From July 2010 through June 2014, Ferguson, a city of about 21,000 residents, issued 90,000 citations for municipal ordinance violations. And in the final 12 months of that period, police and code inspectors wrote almost 50% more citations than they did in the first 12. Significantly, the additional citations were largely for non-serious code offenses-not offenses like assault, driving while intoxicated and theft; the number.of citations for more serious crimes like those generally held steady."
https://reason.com/2019/10/25/relying-on-petty-fines-to-fund-city-government-can-have-serious-consequences/
The study focuses on three Georgia cities that derive 14 to 25 percent of their revenue from such fines and fees: Morrow, Riverdale, and Clarkston.
"They churn through more cases than courts in similarly sized cities, and cases almost always end in a guilty finding, resulting in fines and fees revenue for the cities."
The Institute for Justice observes that "Our review of the sample cities' laws turned up few provisions that would meaningfully protect people from fines and fees abuse." For example, none have ordinances that would "Require municipal courts to provide jury trials when requested by a defendant, offer discovery or hold ability-to-pay hearings."
Neither do any "Require their courts to consider non-jail alternatives to fines and fees, such as community service, educational programs, or school or work attendance," or to "Prohibit courts from incarcerating or threatening to incarcerate people unable to pay fines and fees."
Taxation by citation also leads to "Lower levels of trust and higher levels of ill will toward city government on the part of residents. Trust in government is the level of confidence citizens hold that 'authorities will observe the rules of the game and serve the general interest.' Because many people's primary experiences with the justice system involve dealing with police officers and local courts, excessive use of fines and fees can foment.distrust, damage residents' relationships with law enforcement and harm judicial credibility."
It turns out that "From July 2010 through June 2014, Ferguson, a city of about 21,000 residents, issued 90,000 citations for municipal ordinance violations. And in the final 12 months of that period, police and code inspectors wrote almost 50% more citations than they did in the first 12. Significantly, the additional citations were largely for non-serious code offenses-not offenses like assault, driving while intoxicated and theft; the number.of citations for more serious crimes like those generally held steady."
https://reason.com/2019/10/25/relying-on-petty-fines-to-fund-city-government-can-have-serious-consequences/
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