A number of states have thought of good ways to reduce incarceration costs, like imprisoning fewer people and looking to alternatives to incarceration for those convicted of nonviolent crimes. Other states, like the 15 states with the country's highest prison populations the Brennan Center looked at in its new report, have come up with some really bad ways to try to reduce corrections costs by making the incarcerated pay for them. All 15 of the states surveyed allow re-incarceration as a punishment for failure to repay conviction-related debt.
The report notes that "80-90 percent of those charged with criminal offenses qualify for indigent defense," but that 13 of the 15 states charge inmates for the service of public defenders, which just encourages people to plead guilty even if they aren't. Although technically debtors prisons were outlawed in the 1800s, two states allow debtors to choose imprisonment as a way to reduce their burden to the state based on conviction-related debts, despite the fact that incarceration often costs more than the debt is actually worth. In addition to mere imprisonment as punishment for conviction, these states levy a number of related fees, as exemplified by this Pennsylvania docket sheet from a woman convicted of a drug-related crime:
The report notes that this isn't an outlying example among the states surveyed:
This is not an unusual case. In Texas, a preliminary study by the Texas Office of Court Administration showed that people released to parole owe anywhere from $500 to $2,000 in offense-related debt (not including restitution). A chart used by court clerks in Texas inventories at least 39 different categories of court costs in misdemeanor cases and 35 types of costs in felony cases. In Arizona, individuals face a series of surcharges that add 84 percent to their underlying fines and penalties. Individuals are also liable for additional “set amount” surcharges, including a $20 probation surcharge and a $20 surcharge for using a payment plan to pay off debts.
This is really kind of sadistic. The worst part is that charging these people such fees isn't free, since the state has to pay for collection efforts. There are already a number of social incentives to forgo licit employment after incarceration; avoiding debt collectors who are after you because the state decided your bid just wasn't punishment enough is just more incentive to dip into the underground economy. Being extraordinarily punitive is expensive, and the cost isn't merely financial since states are ultimately paying extra money just to encourage people to re-enter a life of crime in order to avoid an endless cycle of spiraling public debt. Being broke is already pretty expensive; being broke and formerly incarcerated is even more so.
