STOP JAILING INDIGENTS FOR FAILURE TO PAY TRAFFIC FINES

Texans think justice system skewed against poor, support end to debtors-prison practices

By Scott Henson

Grits for Breakfast
November 21, 2018

Stagnant wages and empathy for economic struggles, combined with questions of pragmatism, have caused debtors-prison reform to emerge as a sleeper-hit with the public, judging from recent public-opinion assessments.

Yesterday, Grits cited a new poll which found that "81 percent of Texas registered voters believe the wealthy enjoy substantially better outcomes in the criminal justice than poor and working-class people." That's an overwhelming majority who believe that poor folks aren't treated fairly in the system.

These findings corroborate sentiments documented in a recent statewide survey conducted by the Texas Office of Court Administration:

__Only one third (33%) agree that the average person can afford court costs and filing fees.

__Slightly less than 3 in 10 (29%) agree that Texas courts treat people alike regardless of socio-economic status.

__Two thirds (66%) disapprove of jailing people who owe court costs and filing fees when they cannot afford to pay.

So Texans think average people can't pay court costs, poor people are discriminated against, and the government should stop jailing people who can't pay debt to municipal courts.

Moreover, skewing government priorities toward debt collection has negative implications for public safety. For example, we know that cities that rely heavily on ticket revenue tend to have lower clearance rates on more serious crimes.

It's easy to see why the public thinks justice debt is such a big problem for low-income individuals. Earlier this year, the Federal Reserve estimated that 40 percent of Americans could not pay a surprise $400 bill without borrowing or going into debt. It's easy for municipal-court debt to exceed that amount. And many people owe more than that in delinquent Driver-Responsibility surcharges.

That's why, earlier this year, both Texas state political parties added platform planks advocating to stop jailing people for unpaid traffic ticket debt, instead sending unpaid bills to commercial collections. Roughly half-a-million people sat out traffic ticket debt in jail last year statewide, so that change would help out a lot of folks.

Clearly from these survey data, most Texans believe that jailing people for muni-court debt unfairly harms the poor and needs to stop. We'll find out over the next six months whether the Legislature will embrace this emerging, surprisingly popular view.

EDITOR’S NOTE: There is a substantial disagreement as to who constitutes an indigent. Many people, including judges, adhere to the concept that if you have a job and own a car, you are not an indigent. Nothing could be further from the truth. A parent with four or five children to support who can barely provide food and shelter is an indigent even though he or she has a job and a car. Such a parent can ill afford a traffic fine, even if he or she is offered the opportunity to pay the fine in installments.