Alexes Harris

1. Alexes Harris Presidential Term Professor John Jay University Department of Sociology March 5th, 2019 University of Washington

2. Outline • Understanding Monetary Sanctions • Consequences of Monetary Sanctions • Next Line of Research

3. I. Understanding Monetary Sanctions Legal Financial Obligations (LFOs) • Costs associated with justice system contact • People are required to pay for services and sentences • An involuntary system • Court supervision and control extend until people pay in full • Certain rights limited until paid • Leads to a two-tiered system of justice

4. POLICE ARREST • Cost of defense attorney • Cash Bond/BailBond • “Pre-pay Release Cards” • Asset forfeiture • Jail booking fee • Expungement of record • Deferred prosecution • IMMIGRATION • Detention release bond • PRE/POST INCARCERATION • Phone calls, internet, visits Jail/prison cost • LFO deduction • FINANCIAL RELATED CONSEQUENCES • Loss of driver’s license • Wage garnishment • CONVICTION • Jail/prison cost Restitution • LFOs – fines, fees, costs Black = Private Underline= w/o conviction Figure 1. The “Buckets” of Monetary Sanctions • “ALTERNATIVE” SENTENCES Victim panel class Community supervision Drug/Alcohol Assessment & Treatment • Electronic Home Monitoring • Work Release • COSTS IF CAN’T PAY Collections fee “Convenience” fee • Interest • Per payment cost, min. Alexes Harris, 2018

5. Figure 2. The Layers of Monetary Sanctions Alexes Harris, 2018

6. The “Exceptional” U.S. system of “Justice” Incarceration has increased by 500% in last 40 years (BJS 2016) • 1 in 115 adults were in jail or prison in 2015 • 2.2 million people are in jail or prison currently • 4.6 million people on probation or parole (6.7 on supervision) Rate of incarceration (sentencingproject.org) • 1/17 Black, 1/42 Latino, 1/91 White men 30-34 in prison • Black women is 2x, Latina women is 1.2x that of White women 2010 Estimates (Shannon et al. 2018) • 3% Adult pop, 15% African American adult male pop have been to prison • 8% Adult pop, 33% African American adult male pop has had a felony

7. Example Legislative Growth in Fees • Jury Fee (Washington State RCW 10.46.190) • Existed since 1869 • Modified: • 1881 • 1961 - $12 Jury fee codified • 1977 - $25 jury fee • 2005 - $150/$250 (9 vs. 12)

8. II. Consequences of Monetary Sanctions • Individual (Purposeful Consequences) • Criminal justice – continual supervision, re-incarceration • Economic – debt, decreased resources, already strained economically • Personal – health, stress, family and social network strain Society • Potential decrease in public safety (misguided attention, “desistance disrupter”) • Fiscal costs to courts and other services • Delegitimization of our systems of justice

9. “Vilma” – A Case Study • Could be anyone of us • Incarcerated for 5 years, with over $50K debt • Loss of children • New relationship with child, in apprenticeship program • Facing debt • Strain on family networks – “economic liability”

10. Stratifying Mechanism • Distinct population – disadvantaged pre- and post- conviction and incarceration • The process “perfectly” labels, stigmatizes, financially burdens and imposes further legal consequences to poor people • “Perfectly” sorts the already marginalized and further cements them to lives of inequality • Allows perpetual state surveillance, intervention and control of poor people

11. III. Next Line of Research • I. Data limitations: Accessing court automated data • Difficulty accessing • Consistency within and across states of quality data (missing, different data elements) • II. Open questions: Development of legal statute within states over time to illustrate expansion • Is this within states or certain states, at county or muni levels? • What are arguments for expansion? • III. Open questions: Relationship (or lack there of) between: • Juvenile, traffic, lower courts (misdemeanor, district, village), Superior and Federal courts • Do, and if so, how do courts theoretically and practically use the sentencing of monetary sanctions differently? • Revenue generation (what are differences in ROR), punishment, control mechanism

12. On-Going Research 2015-2020 Multi-StateProject on Monetary Sanctions (Laura and John Arnold Foundation) • Washington (Harris, PI), California (B. Sykes), Texas (B. Pettit), Missouri (B. Huebner), Minnesota (C. Uggen), Georgia (S. Shannon), New York (K. Martin), Illinois (M. Pattillo) • Multilayers of systems of justice (municipal, “lower courts”, superior courts) • Observations of sentencing hearings and sanctioning hearings (~2400 hours) • Interviews with debtors (480), prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys, clerks, probation officers (total ~500) • Compilation of multi-year, multi-state court automated data, including data on fines and fees (sentenced, paid, outstanding, interest, race/ethnicity, priors, current offense) • Currently at case-level, cleaning to individual-level • Will use with Census data for HLM analyses For more information see monetarysanctions.org

13. Working papers and book manuscripts •  “Justice “Cost Points”: An Examination of Privatization Within Public Systems of Justice” (Crime and Public Policy, Forthcoming 2019), w/ Tyler Smith, Emmi Obara • “Monetary Sanctions: A Review of Revenue Generation, Legal Challenges, and Reform” (An Rev LSS, Forthcoming 2019, w/ April Fernandes, Frank Edwards, Michele Cadigan) • “Policing, Mortality and Monetary Sanctions” w/ Frank Edwards • “The World of Monetary Sanctions” w/ team • “Desistance Disrupter” w/ Chris Uggen and team (cj, financial, family and health strain) • Replication of ASR 2011 w/ Frank Edwards and team (race, ethnicity) • Estimating rate of debtors and average debt amounts w/ Sarah Shannon and team • Two Edited Books 1) across and within state analyses 2) methods outline

14. Alexes HarrisPresidential Term ProfessorDepartment of SociologyUniversity of Washington Contact: yharris@uw.edu Website: alexesharris.com Twitter: @alexesharris