PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new report by the Juvenile Law Center found that fines and fees that courts charge juvenile offenders leave many in debt, harming their chances of becoming productive adults.
Aqilah David is a youth advocate at the Juvenile Law Center and co-author of the report on fines and fees. She’s also a survivor of the system that charges them.
“I was arrested at the age of 15 and ordered to pay numerous court fees that I couldn’t afford at the time,” David said.
David said it took her 10 years to pay them off, which is not unique. Others cited in the report had to postpone college, skim on essentials, or stay mired in the system as they struggled to close the debt.
And co-author Nadia Mozaffar said a lot of the fees are not restorative for anyone. They’re bureaucratic.
“A county charges someone for the postage for anything they have to mail. They’ll charge for a sheriff having to come to court,” Mozaffar said.
Mozaffar said they are not even a source of revenue, accounting for a fraction of a percent of county budgets, with collection costs sometimes exceeding what’s collected. According to the report, courts charge teens an average of $311, but they vary so widely from county to county that they create what Mozaffar calls “justice by geography.”
“That creates a very inequitable experience for young people in Pennsylvania,” she said.
The report recommends that Pennsylvania join 24 other states that have eliminated the fees. A bill to do just that — HB 1385 — goes before the House Judiciary Committee this week.