Criminal Fines and Fees ‘Ad Nauseam’ Help Fund California’s Justice System. A State Supreme Court Case May Lighten the Financial Load for Poor Defendants
It was 2018, and one of Asher Waite-Jones’ clients was making minimum wage working part-time in a warehouse when he was assessed about $2000 in fines and fees for a DUI conviction. To pay those, the client, a young man in his 20s, dropped out of school so he could pick up additional work hours. But not long afterward, he was laid off.