Scholars Strategy Network's No Jargon

A $50 citation, $100 in court costs—for many Americans navigating the criminal justice system, fines and fees like these add up quickly. Professor Alexes Harris reveals why local governments charge convicts to pay for the justice system and how this disproportionately burdens marginalized people and communities. For More on this Topic: Read Harris’s  OpEd in the New York Times, Justice Shouldn’t Come With a $250 Fine Check out her book, A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as a Permanent Punishment for Poor People. Find her two-page brief, How Reliance on Fees and Charges to Fund U.S. Criminal Justice Weakens Public Faith in Poor Communities Further Reading: Episode 39: Change from the Inside, David Dagan, Johns Hopkins University Using Fines to Fund Municipal Government Hurts Low-Income Minorities, Just as Sharecropping Did a Century Ago, Brandi Blessett, Rutgers University-Camden