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August 24, 2015The Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court and other judicial officials in the state are examining recommendations from the American Civil Liberties Union designed to keep parish jails from becoming “debtor prisons” housing people whose chief “crime” is inability to pay fines and court costs.
The recommendations include:
• HEARINGS: Require judges to conduct meaningful indigence hearings and consider alternatives to incarceration prior to jailing people for failure to pay fines. Any incarceration for financial obligations must be imposed only after such a hearing and standardized amounts for credit upon the fine, such as $50 per day or a fraction of a day, must be set.
• COUNSEL: Ensure that all defendants are offered the opportunity to have counsel, including a public defender when appropriate, at an indigence hearing or a hearing on revocation of probation for inability or failure to pay.
• GUIDELINES: Establish clear and consistent guidelines for imposing community service as sentencing in lieu of fines. The community service must be reasonably achievable for the defendant given their particular circumstances, taking into account such factors as work schedules and travel constraints.
• CONSIDER COST: Consider the relative costs of debtors prison in all such sentencing decisions. Courts should provide a fiscal impact statement estimating the cost of incarceration. These costs should include ancillary costs borne by the family, including the loss of income and possibly a job, as well as costs borne by society including the family’s increased need for public assistance.
• USE A BENCH CARD: Adopt a “bench card” that instructs judges on methods of collecting fines and fees that meet constitutional requirements, and informs them that “pay or stay” sentences or sentences that offer fines in lieu of incarceration are illegal.
