How Chapel Hill is Combating the Sinister Cycle of Court Debt

Defendants with mounting court debts in Chapel Hill may now apply for financial help through the Criminal Justice Debt Fund (Source)

Recently, Chapel Hill Town Council members voted unanimously to approve the Criminal Justice Debt Fund, a program designed to assist low-income defendants trapped in a cycle of debt to the courts.  The Council set aside $20,000 for the pilot program, allowing citizens to apply for financial aid to cover their court fees.  Funds will be appropriated at the discretion of the Chapel Hill Police Crisis Unit for the benefit of defendants facing traffic violations or other non-violent crimes.  The implementation of this program marks an important step in combating the disproportionate effects of rising court fees on populations most in need of equal protection under the law.           

Over the past 40 years, the U.S. justice system has responded to the enormous financial strain of the increasing incarceration rate by drastically raising court fees. The popular “tough on crime” mentality of the 1980s fueled this phenomenon, and the courts continuously relied on revenue from these fees to sustain their operations.  North Carolina’s spending habits contribute to this problem, as the corrections budget grew by 253 percent from 1986 to 2015.  Additionally, a continuous upward trend in spending on the state’s judicial branch reached its maximum at $546 million in 2009. 

For the state to offset this spending, the cost of court fees in North Carolina rose an astronomical 216 percent from 1985 to 2015, four times the rate of inflation over that time period.  As a consequence, individuals experiencing financial difficulty can become trapped by mounting debts to the court and additional punishments due to minor infractions like speeding tickets.  In North Carolina, failure to pay court fees on time may result in additional fines, increased probation periods, or the suspension of a defendant’s driver’s license.  These harsh penalties cause defendants extreme hardship in securing or maintaining employment, making it nearly impossible for them to resolve their debts.

Town council members Karen Stegman and Allen Buansi recognized Chapel Hill’s complicity in this unfair targeting of low-income defendants and proposed the program last year as a response. The town is allotted $25,000 from the state every year for the upkeep of Franklin Street’s courthouse, which Stegman pointed out in her criticism of the local justice system.  Due to the high probability that this money consists of court fee revenue, she claims that Chapel Hill has “unwittingly participated in what is widely accepted to be an unjust system that has a disparate impact on the poor and on people of color.”  Buansi claims that the successful passing of this program helps Chapel Hill promote values of empathy, forgiveness, inclusion, and equality. 

Since the vote to approve the Criminal Justice Debt Fund, those in the surrounding areas have begun to speculate about the program’s potential for success.  The N.C. General Assembly tends to pass laws that inhibit a judge’s ability to waive court fees on a case-by-case basis.  Therefore, the fund provides an alternate solution where legislation has failed to address the needs of impoverished defendants. Ultimately, the program’s advocates hope those who benefit from the fund can be reintroduced as a contributing member of society, giving the most vulnerable defendants a well-deserved second chance.