5 takeaways:
➀ Misdemeanor arrests are the most prevalent form of social control, representing three-quarters of all criminal cases filed. U.S. police log 13 million misdemeanor arrests each year, most for relatively minor offenses, said Beth Huebner, a professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. They are a major revenue source for cities, courts and police departments. That gives the criminal justice system an incentive to pull in as many people as possible. The practice attracted national attention in 2014 after a police killing and civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
➁ For those living on the financial edge, small fines mean big problems. As surveys by the U.S. Federal Reserve have shown, many adults are “not well prepared to withstand even small financial disruptions” in their lives. An unexpected car repair, medical bill or arrest for a minor infraction can send them into debt. Said Huebner: “Many of us get a traffic ticket, we pay it, we go home. We never think about it again. But that’s not the case for everyone.”
➂ Some state legislatures are moving to curb the incentives police departments have to arrest and fine more people. Missouri has passed and amended “Macks Creek law” to limit the revenue that a city can generate from fines. It also caps fines and fees for minor traffic violations at $225, bars jail time for failure to pay court fees and mandates community service option as an alternative for those who cannot pay.
➃ The arrest-and-fine culture exacerbates racial disparities. The “disparity index” in police stops in Missouri hasn’t budged in 20 years, Huebner said. The index, which measures how likely a person is to be stopped by police, shows that Black Missourians are about six times more likely to be stopped than white Missourians. In some municipalities, the disparity is even greater. And if police discover that a person they’ve stopped has an outstanding warrant, they must arrest them. “That brings people further into the criminal legal system, by spending at least a couple hours in jail,” Huebner said. Most of these warrant arrests are for nonviolent minor offenses like driving without a license, driving without insurance or panhandling.
➄ Several states have stopped taking away a person’s driver’s license issues because of unpaid court costs. Thirteen states have abolished such laws, and Huebner advocates assessing fines based on how much the defendant can pay and providing for fee waivers. In Illinois, for example, a new law allows waivers for those living at up to 400% of the poverty line. But there’s pushback in some states that fear changing such driver’s license laws will make the highways more dangerous. Huebner disputes that: “There’s been some really good research that shows if you allow people to have their driver’s license … and have them pay different ways, the roads can still be safe.”
Speaker:
Beth Huebner, Professor and Graduate Program Director, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri-St. Louis
This program was funded by Arnold Ventures. NPF is solely responsible for the content.
