Edited by Gavin E. Oxburgh, Trond Myklebust, Mark Fallon and Maria Hartwig

Data-driven decision-making and science-based policies are critical to ensuring that the most effective tools and methods are being used to address real-world issues, such as the challenge of how to effectively elicit information from people during an interview. Academics and practitioners alike have been calling for investigators to transition away from customary, experience-based approaches to interviewing and detecting deception, and toward adoption of science-based approaches in their stead. Increasingly, there are hopeful signs this transition is welcomed by many members of the practitioner community, and a growing number of organizations are seeking out science-based interview and interrogation training.2A fundamental premise of this volume is that science-based methods of interviewing–skills and techniques that have been validated through an objective process of systematic empiricism–are the most effective means of eliciting reliable information from interviewees, and the current volume provides the practitioner community with a comprehensive summary of the state of the science of interviewing (with the irony being that, at some point after this volume is published, the science will have advanced). Each chapter in this volume is written by leading scholars in the field or practitioners who have become versed in the science of interviewing and have key insights to share about their use of science-based approaches in the field. The findings and conclusions are based on hundreds, if not thousands, of studies using a wide variety of complex re-search methodologies and statistical analyses, none of which is particularly easy to understand for people without advanced scientific training. Just as it is fool-hardy for academics to assume they understand the challenges and realities of interviewing in the ‘real world’ without critical insights from and partnerships with experienced practitioners, it is not realistic to expect practitioners to be-come scientists in their own right, able to consume and put the science into practice without assistance. That said, it is imperative that practitioners are armed with enough knowledge of scientific methods to become critical consumers of purported scientific information

By Kelly Roskam, Chiara Cooper, Philip Stallworth, and April M. Zeoli

For more than a decade after the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to possess a handgun i  the home for  self-defense in District of Columbia v. Heller, 1 courts relied on the well documented connection between domestic abusers and firearm violence to uphold the laws prohibiting persons subject to domestic violence protective orders (DVPOs) from purchasing or possessing firearms. Research finds that these laws are associated with reductions in intimate partner homicide, making them a valuable tool for protecting victimized partners.2 However, the constitutionality of those evidence-based laws is now in question due to the sea change in Second Amendment jurisprudence represented by New York State Rifle and Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen. 3 Bruen repudiated the use of tiers of scrutiny and requires that the government bear the burden of showing that a modern law is relevantly similar to historical firearms laws to be constitutional.4 The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in United States v. Rahimi5 to decide whether the 30-year-old federal law prohibiting the purchase and possession of firearms by persons subject to DVPOs, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), is consistent with the Second Amendment. Before Bruen, public health research played a straightforward role in Second Amendment analyses of § 922(g)(8). Lower courts had no trouble using such research in their tiers-of-scrutiny analyses to determine that reducing firearm-involved domestic violence was an important    governmental interest and that there was a reasonable fit between § 922(g)(8) and that interest. After Bruen, public health and social science research plays a more nuanced role in Second Amendment analyses. Such research must be connected to an underlying historical argument that implicates either the original plain text of the Second Amendment or the relevance of an historical analogue. 6 In this Article, we illustrate how this connection can be made in the context of § 922(g)(8). We first introduce § 922(g)(8) and discuss how state analogs do or do not implement its proscription of firearm possession by those subject to DVPOs. We then lay out the relevant legal background, including Heller, post-Heller Second Amendment case-law concerning § 922(g)(8), and Bruen, before turning to the meat of our argument. We next discuss Rahimi and other post-Bruen cases addressing § 922(g)(8), arguing that the law satisfies Bruen’s requirement that statutes regulating firearm access must be sufficiently similar to historical firearm laws. We argue that firearm-involved domestic violence is an “unprecedented societal concern” that requires a more nuanced approach to analogy.7 A myopic search for founding-era bars on firearm possession by domestic abusers ignores both important differences in social norms surrounding women, marriage, and domestic violence and the significantly increased role of firearms in domestic violence today. Instead, § 922(g)(8) is more aptly analogized to historical laws evidencing the longstanding tradition of prohibiting “dangerous people from possessing guns,”8 such as so-called “going armed laws,” surety laws, and racist and discriminatory laws that prohibited firearm possession by enslaved persons, Native Americans, Catholics, and those who refused to swear loyalty oaths.

United States, 51 Fordham Urb. L.J. 2023, 39pg

By Jess Zhang, Jacob Kang-Brown, and Ari Kotler

  Electronic monitoring (EM) is a form of digital surveillance that tracks people’s physical location, movement, or other markers of behavior (such as blood alcohol level). It is commonly used in the criminal legal system as a condition of pretrial release or post-conviction supervision—including during probation, parole, home confinement, or work release. The United States also uses electronic monitoring for people in civil immigration proceedings who are facing deportation. This report fills a gap in understanding around the size and scope of EM use in the United States. The Vera Institute of Justice’s (Vera) estimates reveal that, in 2021, 254,700 adults were under some form of EM. Of these, 150,700 people were subjected to EM by the criminal legal system and 103,900 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Further investigation revealed that the number of adults placed on EM by ICE more than tripled between 2021 and 2022, increasing to 360,000.1 This means that the total number of adults on EM across both the civil immigration and criminal legal systems likely increased to nearly half a million during that time. From 2005 to 2021, the number of people on EM in the United States grew nearly fivefold—and almost tenfold by 2022—while the number of people incarcerated in jails and prisons declined by 16 percent and the number of people held in ICE civil detention increased but not nearly as dramatically as EM.2 Regional trends in the criminal legal system reveal how EM has been used more widely in some states and cities but increased sharply from 2019 to 2021 across the country: The Midwest has the highest rate of state and local criminal legal system EM, at 65 per 100,000 residents; this rate stayed relatively constant from 2019 to  midyear 2021. In the Northeast, EM rates are the lowest of all the regions at 19 per 100,000 residents, but they increased by 46 percent from 2019 to 2021. The South and West have similar rates, 41 and 34 per 100,000 residents respectively, but the growth rate in the South has outpaced that of the West in recent years—up 32 percent in the South compared to 18 percent in the West. Prior to this report, the most recent estimate of the national EM population was from a 2015 Pew Charitable Trusts study—which studied the use of criminal legal system EM via a survey of the 11 biggest EM companies. For this report, Vera researchers collected data from criminal legal system agencies in all 50 states and more than 500 counties, as well as from federal courts, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and ICE. Therefore, Vera’s study represents the most comprehensive count of the national EM population to date, as it accounts for the rise of smaller EM companies, immigration system surveillance, and new EM technologies. For this report, Vera researchers also reviewed existing literature and spoke with local officials to better understand the impacts of EM programs. Vera’s findings contradict private companies’ assertions that EM technology is low-cost, efficient, and reliable. EM in the criminal legal system is highly variable and subject to political decisions at the local level. In many jurisdictions, EM is not used as a means to reduce jail populations. Rather, it is often a crucial component of highly punitive criminal legal systems. This challenges the dominant narrative that EM is an “alternative to incarceration.” Nonetheless, this report also highlights several jurisdictions that demonstrate how decarceration can occur alongside reduced surveillance. 

New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2024. 54p.

By Kelsie Chesnut and Jennifer Peirce

  From 2019 to 2022, the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera), along with Black and Pink National, developed and conducted a large-scale survey of currently incarcerated transgender people regarding their experiences in state prisons. In 2015, Black and Pink National published a landmark survey of more than a thousand LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning) incarcerated people, Coming Out of Concrete Closets. The present survey provides updated information on similar issues as Black and Pink’s 2015 survey but focuses solely on transgender people. Vera and Black and Pink National are grateful to the incarcerated people who took the time to thoughtfully respond to the survey, often sharing sensitive and traumatic experiences. The survey used regular mail to reach participants, who were already connected with Black and Pink National, and this allowed people to respond in 2021–2022 despite ongoing COVID-related constraints on inperson access to prisons. This report highlights the key findings from the survey responses and open-ended comments shared by the 280 people who participated. 1 Vera and Black and Pink National codesigned all stages of this project, with input from researchers and advocates working on this topic. Vera independently managed the data collection, analysis, and production of findings included in this report, with guidance and input from Black and Pink National and an external expert research consultant.2 The goals of this report are to • share the experiences and insights of transgender people living behind bars in state prisons in their own words, • provide policymakers and people who work with incarcerated people with findings that update and expand their understanding of how transgender people in state prisons experience conditions of confinement, • improve correctional policy and practice as it relates to transgender people who are incarcerated in the United States, and  • contribute to a larger national discussion about incarceration and decarceration in a way that advances transgender justice.  

New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2024. 96p.

By John McGhee, Scott McMillan & James Reilly

This scoping document was commissioned by the BF programme to better understand the impact of long-term imprisonment in Scotland, drawing on the expertise of SPARC. Initial background research from SPARC found that many of the issues faced by long-term prisoners in England and Wales are also faced by those in Scottish prisons. This document highlights these similarities and considers the differences. The Scottish context - On 23 May 2022 there were 1,044 prisoners serving 10 years or more in Scotland. • - This means 19% of the convicted population in Scotland were serving over 10 years compared with 16% in England and Wales. • The average sentence for murder has increased from eight to nine years in the 1970’s to nearly 20 years in 2021. • Successful parole applications in the early 2000’s were just under 30%, this has now reduced to 12%. • Progression is a major issue in Scottish prisons and 36 of 100 judicial reviews are concerned with progression or parole. - SPARC have had requests from Scottish prisoners for advocacy work to navigate the progression and parole system. - Most advocacy requests related to “critical dates” which are those dates specific and relevant to progression, availability of spaces on offence focused programmes, spaces in community testing facilities, and the misapplication of risk scoring tools. - These issues were also highlighted during SPARC’s community consultations for Glasgow University’s ‘Scotland in Lockdown’ project. - In 2018 SPARC delivered a training workshop to the Independent Prison Monitors in Scotland on the failings of the progression system. ....

London: Prison Reform Trust, 2023. 26p.

By Prison Reform Trust

The use of force in prison is only justifiable if it is legal, proportionate in the circumstances, reasonable, and necessary.

This briefing brings together evidence that, we think, casts doubt on the legality of the use of PAVA spray in prisons.

The first section describes the expansion of PAVA availability in adult male prisons. The second discusses the evidence of disproportionate use of PAVA by race, religion and disability. Third, we show how disproportionate use of PAVA has become the norm. Fourth, we explain the legal context, and argue that the current provision of PAVA spray to prison establishments does not comply with HMPPS’ legal obligations. Fifth, we re-examine arguments that PAVA spray contributes to prison safety. Finally, building on evidence, the briefing makes recommendations designed to reduce the disproportionate use of PAVA.

London: Prison Reform Trust, 2023. 18p.

By Sophie Ellis and Alex Hewson

  Introduction It’s hard to find the right adjectives to describe the tumultuous year the prison and probation service has had. The chief inspector of prisons issued five urgent notifications (UN)—raising immediate concerns about conditions—the highest number in a single year. The prison service ran out of places, forcing the government to adopt emergency measures to hold people in police cells; release people from prison early; delay court hearings; and warn judges about the pressure on our already overcrowded prisons. Meanwhile, staff leave the service in droves, quickly burnt out by the conditions they face each day as they pick up their keys to start their shift. Prisons continue to be places of hopelessness and despair for too many people, with self-harm now higher than before the pandemic, and reaching the highest level on record for women. Whilst crisis and scandal can trigger defensiveness, they can also act as a launch pad for bold reform. The Government should seize this opportunity to show that the status quo is not working and present a positive alternative vision for our criminal justice system. One that is rooted in the things that matter to the communities that they serve—safety, fairness, effectiveness and decency—and which relies on evidence rather than rhetoric. Alex Chalk, our current Secretary of State for Justice, has to his credit begun this journey. A swift reconsideration of his predecessor’s intransigence to ending the injustice of the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence; reversing measures which prevented people progressing in their sentences; and introducing legislation currently before Parliament for a presumption that prison sentences of a year or less should be replaced with a suspended prison sentence. All of these are causes for celebration in a sector where the wins are few and hard fought for. As the former Governor of HMP Liverpool, I know first-hand the powerful impact that reducing prisoner numbers had on my ability to bring about much needed reform measures. Overcrowding is the single biggest barrier in providing a safe, decent and rehabilitative prison. Prisons will always be messy, complex places to live and work in, but by hitting the reset button it reduced the relentless day-to-day crisis we faced when the next full escort van turned up. Having fewer people in the prison not only reduced the flow in and out of the gates each day, but it also gave me and my team some breathing space to work through the plethora of problems we needed to fix. It unlocked the much-needed funding and focus for refurbishment to take place. It allowed us to develop a vision; to articulate our values and to see the wood for the trees. But most importantly, it allowed us—the operational experts—to shape our prison in a way that worked best for those who lived and worked there. But what happens when you have a prison system with so little slack that you can’t simply transfer 500 people to another prison down the road? We’ve witnessed the very real consequences on prisons when politicians talk about the need to “toughen up” sentences with little thought given to the implications—or to the long line of similar measures that preceded them. Governors up and down the country—good, hard working and well-intentioned leaders—must despair at how straightjacketed they are. They are expected to be omnipotent leaders—ultimately responsible when it hits the fan—but are often left feeling that they have little autonomy.    They fulfil the insatiable requests for information from higher management; they react with knee jerk responses in anticipation of events that could cause their ministers political embarrassment; and they live with the constant threat of doing something which turns out to be career limiting. In the new world, the decision-making structure has well and truly moved from the governor’s office to outside the prison......

London: Prison Reform Trust, 2024. 86p.

By Nisha Waller and Naima Sakande

In England and Wales, the requirement for a unanimous jury verdict in criminal cases was abolished in 1967, marking a significant departure from a centuries-old legal tradition. Majority verdicts are now common practice, yet no research to date explores the origins of this sudden change to the jury system. In contrast, recent research in the US uncovered a connection between the conception of majority verdicts in Louisiana and Jim Crow era law-making, finding that majority verdicts were strategically introduced to suppress the black juror vote and facilitate quicker convictions to fuel free prison labour. The US Supreme Court later outlawed majority verdicts in a case known as Ramos v. Louisiana, amid recognition of their racist origins. Adopting the critical epistemological position guiding the US research, we consider how race and class underpinned the decision to introduce majority verdicts in England and Wales. Drawing on Home Office files and other archival materials, we find that an increase in eligible jurors from different racial and class backgrounds led to a perceived decline in the ‘calibre’ of jurors – reflective of wider public anxieties about Commonwealth immigration, Black Power and white disenfranchisement. We conclude that a desire to dilute the influence of ‘coloured’ migrants on juries contributed to the introduction of majority verdicts in England and Wales.

Race & Class, online first, 2024.

By Kees Sterk

For the identity and well-functioning of Europe, independent national judiciaries are key, and the selection processes of judges and Court Presidents essential. During the last decade, however, several European Governments have been undermining this by trying to establish political control over national judges, especially through political dominance over the selection and appointment processes for judges and Court Presidents.

In his inaugural speech, Sterk addresses the topic of selection processes, both on substance as well as on procedure. He analyses the case law of the European Court of Justice as well as the European Court of Human Rights, and the enforcement policies of the European Commission. 

Sterk identifies problems and recommends five steps to protect independent justice in Europe including the systemic enforcement gap, an effective enforcement duty, the standards for selection bodies, a duty to reason selection decisions, and on limiting the power of the executive to refuse candidates selected by selection bodies.

The Hague: Eleven International Publishing, 2023. 56p.

By Coletta A. Youngers

The incarceration of women is growing at alarming rates worldwide and in Latin America it is driven by strict drug laws, with devastating consequences for the women impacted and their families. Their stories unveil contexts of poverty, lack of opportunity, and physical and sexual violence, and also reveal the discrimination of unjust legal systems and societies plagued by stigmatization and patriarchal attitudes. But they are also stories of resilience, as women coming out of prison in Latin America today are organizing and fighting for their human rights and the right to live with dignity.

In response to the growing crisis of women’s incarceration in Latin America, in 2015 organizations, experts and activists created a Working Group on Women, Drug Policies, and Incarceration, led by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), and the Colombian NGO, Centro de Estudios de Derechos, Justicia y Sociedad – Dejusticia. Our objective is to significantly reduce the number of women deprived of liberty in Latin America, providing analysis and public policy recommendations and participating in advocacy initiatives at the international, regional, and national levels.

The purpose of this report is to reflect on almost ten years of collective research and joint advocacy by the working group, its achievements and disappointments, as well as challenges and opportunities for the future.

Washington, DC: Washington Office on Latin America, 2023.. 82p.

By User Voice

This report brings forth the experiences of people who are diagnosed and self-diagnose as neurodivergent. As the health and criminal justice sectors are learning more about the experiences of neurodivergent service users, User Voice wants to bring their voices front and centre, and to give them real agency. Their quotes are unedited and based on their personal experiences. As part of this study User Voice interviewed 104 service users across 11 prisons nationwide between September 2022 and February 2023. To gain as full a picture as possible, User Voice additionally surveyed 250 neurodivergent service users about their experiences in the criminal justice system. All interviewed or surveyed service users were either diagnosed or self-diagnosed as neurodivergent. To provide as holistic a picture as possible, User Voice spoke to service users about their lives before they were involved in the criminal justice system. In early life, most service users we spoke to came from lower socio-economic backgrounds, over half had experienced abuse and neglect, and one third had been in care. At a crisis point, service users often found that they did not have the needed support networks, and therefore as a result, many had turned to alcohol and drugs which then had led to a life of criminality. Many told us that due to their neurodiversity, they are easily manipulated, coerced, groomed, or susceptible to peer pressure. This report shines a light on the lack of support for people who end up in the criminal justice system. Half of the service users who took part in this report told us they had been diagnosed before they turned 17 years old. Nine had been diagnosed between ages 17 – 26, and 17 when they were older than 27 years. None of them had been told how to live with their conditions. This study finds a criminal justice system ill-prepared to help neurodivergent people. In police custody, only 2 service users had adjustments made around their neurodiversity, whereas in prison, 15 said adjustments had been made. Because of lack of assessments and screening in prisons, we found that only few were receiving the support they needed. We believe that lived experience has a crucial part to play in the formulation of policy and practice in every sector, whether it be criminal justice, health, or education. To benefit those who are neurodivergent, we advocate for more peer support as well employing staff with lived experience in neurodiversity. This would guarantee that services and resources are tailored to the needs of neurodivergent service users. As prison populations grow, a commitment to more neurodiversity qualified health care staff is a must. The prison population would benefit from clinical psychologists in prison as well as better management of medication. This report is a snapshot of people’s lived experience. To drive true reform, we hope that more resources are given to projects that share the voices and experiences of neurodivergent people. To stop neurodivergent people ending up in the criminal justice system, we need to learn from those who have been there.

London: User Voice, 2023. 41p

By Andrew Galley,  Frank Sirotich, and Sara Rodrigues  

This report is based on a scoping review by a team of researchers at the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), who analyzed existing research and policy documents on the mental health care needs of justice-involved persons in Canada’s criminal justice system and in peer jurisdictions. It aims to guide future research and policy development by highlighting what is currently known about this topic and what knowledge gaps may exist in the literature on mental health in the criminal justice system. While it highlights research on the prevalence of mental health problems and mental illness in the criminal justice system, experiences of justice-involved persons with mental health problems and mental illness, and promising practices and principles for mental health care, it is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the literature.   

Ottawa: Mental Health Commission of Canada , 2020. 124p.

By Birth Companions

In this briefing paper we shine a spotlight on the issues faced by women who have contact with both the criminal justice and children’s social care systems during pregnancy and the first two years of their child’s life. We outline the context, highlight key evidence, and share some powerful contributions from our Lived Experience Team who have experienced this ‘dual contact’. 

UK: Birth Companions, 2023. 25p.

By Donald Kerwin & Brendan Kerwin

This paper examines the staffing needs of the US Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), as it seeks to eliminate an immigration court backlog, which approached 2.5 million pending cases at the end of fiscal year (FY) 2023. A previous study by the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) attributed the backlog to systemic, long-neglected problems in the broader US immigration system. This paper provides updated estimates of the number of immigration judges (IJs) and “judge teams” (IJ teams) needed to eliminate the backlog over ten and five years based on different case receipt and completion scenarios. It also introduces a data tool that will permit policymakers, administrators and researchers to make their own estimates of IJ team hiring needs based on changing case receipt and completion data. Finally, the paper outlines the pressing need for reform of the US immigration system, including a well-resourced, robust, and independent court system, particularly in light of record “encounters” of migrants at US borders in FY 2022 and 2023.

United States, Journal on Migration and Human Security. 2024, 10pg

By The United States Sentencing Commission

This report examines variations in sentencing practices—and corresponding variations in sentencing outcomes—in the federal courts since the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in United States v. Booker. The United States Sentencing Commission analyzed the sentencing practices of federal district judges in 30 major cities located throughout the country to determine the extent of the judges’ variations in imposing sentences in relation to the city average. This report is the second in a series of reports updating the analyses and findings of the Commission’s 2012 Report on the Continuing Impact of United States v. Booker on Federal Sentencing.

Washington, DC: United States Sentencing Commission, 2019. 138p.

By The United States Sentencing Commission

This report is the third in a series of reports. It examines variations in sentencing practices—and corresponding variations in sentencing outcomes—across federal districts since the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in United States v. Booker.  The Commission’s ongoing analysis in this area directly relates to a key goal of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984: reducing unwarranted sentencing disparities that existed in the federal judicial system.  In particular, the Act was the result of a widespread bipartisan concern that such disparities existed both regionally (e.g., differences among the districts) and within the same courthouse. Having analyzed the differences within the same courthouse in its Intra-City Report, the Commission now turns in this report to examining regional differences since Booker.

Washington, DC: United States Sentencing Commission, 2020. 100p.

By Ian K. Belton, Mandeep K. Dhami

Personal mitigating factors (PMFs) such as good character, remorse and addressing addiction help sentencers evaluate an offender's past, present and future behavior. We analyzed data from the 2011–2014 Crown Court Sentencing Surveys in England and Wales to examine the relationship between these PMFs and custodial sentences passed on assault and burglary offenses, controlling for other sentencing relevant factors. Beyond revealing the distribution and co-occurrence of the three PMFs, it was found that good character, remorse and addressing addiction all had a significant mitigating effect. The effects of addressing addiction were the strongest of the three across both offense types, while good character had a stronger effect on burglary than assault. In addition, some mitigating factors appear to be underweighted when they occur together. We consider the implications of these findings for sentencing policy and practice.

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Volume21, Issue1, March 2024, Pages 208-239

By Kelly Lyn Mitchell

  When a person is charged and convicted of a criminal offense in Minnesota, a number of consequences flow from that conviction. The person may experience arrest and booking into the county jail. They may have to post bond or bail to gain pretrial release from jail while the case is pending. And if convicted, they may be sentenced to a period of incarceration in prison or jail or they may be ordered to serve a period of time on probation, during which they will have numerous court-ordered conditions to comply with. Each of these touchpoints with the criminal justice system may incur additional challenges for the person, such as potential loss of employment, and impacts on family members who may have to post bail or oversee care for their children. One area that is less visible is the financial side of the experience. There are three different types of financial obligations a person may be required to pay following conviction for a criminal offense: fines, restitution, and fees (Table 1). Fines serve as a form of punishment for the offense committed, while also generating revenue for the system. Restitution, on the other hand, is a financial obligation that aims to compensate the victim for any losses sustained as a result of the crime. Fees are different, in that their primary function is revenue generation. Fees are financial obligations that are used to fund specific aspects of the criminal legal system, such as public defender representation, or to provide funding for the state, county, or city’s general budget

Minneapolis: Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, 2023. 20p.

By Sarah Shannon

Georgia leads the nation in probation supervision, which has been the subject of recent legislative reforms. Probation supervision is the primary mechanism for monitoring and collecting legal financial obligations (LFOs) from people sentenced in Georgia courts. This Article analyzes how monetary sanctions and probation supervision intersect in Georgia using quantitative data from the Department of Community Supervision as well as interviews with probationers and probation officers gathered as part of the Multi-State Study of Monetary Sanctions between 2015 and 2018. Several key findings emerge: (1) there is substantial variation between judicial districts in the amount of fines and fees ordered to felony probationers in Georgia, with fines and fees in rural areas much higher than those in urban areas; (2) probationers express fear of incarceration solely for lack of ability to pay; (3) probation officers consider collecting LFOs as a distraction from their true mission of public safety; and (4) both probationers and probation officers question the purpose, effectiveness, and fairness of monetary sanctions in Georgia. This Article concludes with a discussion of reforms to date and further options for reform based on the findings from this research. 

Georgia Law Rev. 2020 ; 54(4): 1213–1234 

By Tyler Giles

This paper estimates the government revenue, recidivism, and financial health effects of an increase in misdemeanor fines/fees. I leverage a statutory change in Milwaukee whereby convicted defendants were assessed an average additional $279 if sentenced after a certain date. Exploitation of this date in a regression discontinuity design reveals that about 28 cents of each additional dollar charged was eventually collected, often through the automatic application of posted cash bail to court debt. The increase in fines/fees increased the likelihood of felony recidivism, especially among Black defendants, but had no effect on credit score or other credit report outcomes.

Working paper, 2023. 75p