FY 16 The Price of Justice: Rethinking the Consequences of Justice Fines and Fees (Category 1)

The purpose of the FY 2016 Price of Justice: Rethinking the Consequences of Justice Fines and Fees Program is to encourage and disseminate best practices for coordinated and appropriate justice system responses to justice-involved individuals’ inability to pay fines, fees, and related charges, including eliminating unnecessary and unconstitutional confinement. The objectives of the program are the following: increase corrections costs saved or avoided by reducing unnecessary confinement; support the use of data analysis upon which fair and effective policies and practices related to criminal justice financial obligations can be based; promote and increase collaboration and data sharing among criminal justice agencies and officials regarding assessment, collection, prioritization, and tracking of fines, fees, and related costs, including state and local policymakers, law enforcement, prosecution, defense, pretrial, courts, probation, treatment, corrections, reentry, and parole; and support tailored alternatives to fines, fees, and costs that promote, rather than undermine, rehabilitation, reintegration, and community trust.

The award recipient will work with their partners to reduce unnecessary confinement due to justice-involved individuals’ inability to pay fines, fees, and related charges. As specified in the application, the award recipient will collaborate and share data among criminal justice agencies and officials regarding assessment, collection, prioritization, and tracking of fines, fees, and related costs; and/or pilot or scale up alternatives to fines, fees, and costs; and/or improve and institutionalize innovative approaches to determinations of ability to pay and willful nonpayment; and/or develop and implement another strategy to further this solicitation’s goal. In partnership with the technical assistance provider, the successful recipient will develop a work plan that defines the problem, goals, objectives, and action steps. The award recipient will also work with the provider to conduct and publish an analysis of existing fines, fees, and costs as established by statute or administrative or local orders, rules, or ordinances; an accounting of collection and disbursement of such monies; and an analysis of the jail population to determine the prevalence and incidence of jail use for failures to pay.

Funds will be used to target local sites to achieve greater impact; promote the use of evidence-based programs and strategies by third-party treatment and programming providers; enhance paroling authorities’ use of evidence-based policy, practice, and decision making; create or expand the continuum of pretrial options in one or more jurisdictions; develop and pilot measures and analyses that account for population characteristics including crime type, risk level, and criminal history; establish or enhance performance incentive funding programs to encourage successful integration of evidence-based practices in community supervision; pilot or scale up swift and certain or intermediate and graduated sanctions; or other uses that further justice reinvestment goals.

CA/NCF