The Internet rightly celebrated Patricia Spottedcrow’s release from an Oklahoma jail earlier this month, after anonymous benefactors paid her court debt that topped $1,100. Though her case was particularly severe, it also illustrates the many different state policies that make it incredibly difficult for people with criminal records to reintegrate into society.
Back in 2010, police arrested Spottedcrow and her mother for selling $31 of marijuana to a police informant. Unemployed and living with her mother at the time, it was Spottedcrow’s first criminal offense. Nevertheless, an Oklahoma judge sentenced her to 12 years in prison.
Thankfully, when her story became public, it sparked a firestorm of outrage. A different judge reduced Spottedcrow’s sentence, and she was paroled in 2012.
But Oklahoma wasn’t finished with Spottedcrow. The court had imposed $2,740 in fines on her. When she failed to pay, she was slapped with even more fines. Finally, the state threw Spottedcrow in jail and told her that she would only be released when she paid $1,139.90. Of course, she didn’t have the money; otherwise, she would have paid the fines in the first place. Thanks to media attention, donors paid her court debt, and she was freed in September.
But while Spottedcrow is now free, millions of Americans are still caught in a vicious cycle of unending fines and fees. Instead of dispensing justice, state and local governments have increasingly used their court systems to collect revenue. Worse, many localities further punish debtors by obstructing their ability to pay what they owe.
With a criminal record, Spottedcrow struggled to find work and quickly fell behind on payments for her court debt. Before she was arrested, Spottedcrow once worked as a certified nursing assistant. But under state law, her drug conviction prevents her from resuming that career path, robbing her of the chance to provide for herself and her family.
Like Spottedcrow, many ex-offenders are prohibited from working a variety of jobs. A recent story by The Washington Post reported that “across the country, more than 10,000 regulations restrict people with criminal records from obtaining occupational licenses,” with the rules “often arbitrary and ambiguous.”
In a similar vein, Spottedcrow’s mother, who received a 30-year suspended sentence, also had her driver’s license revoked as part of her punishment. That clearly hinders her traveling to her job, as well as the ability to run basic errands. Worse, those caught driving without a license are subject to new charges, and the cycle of fines begins again.
According to the Free to Drive Coalition, which consists of more than 100 different groups, Oklahoma suspended more than 42,000 driver’s licenses for failing to pay court debt or not appearing in court. Nor is the problem limited to Oklahoma: 11 million people in more than 40 states have lost their driver’s licenses over unpaid fines and fees.
Not only are these policies harmful, they’re unconstitutional. Earlier this year, my organization, the Institute for Justice, secured a landmark decision at the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “excessive fines” applies to cities and states, not just the federal government. Moreover, the Constitution bars unequal treatment of the rich and the poor and prohibits governments from jailing people when they are too poor to pay their court debt.
Governments must stop using courts as sources of revenue. State and local lawmakers should also repeal absurd laws like suspending driver’s licenses or jailing debtors for unpaid court debt. We must demand they do so and break the debt cycle that traps so many poor Americans.
