The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

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"While debtors' prisons are thought to be a thing of the past, they still exist in Rhode Island," Family Life Center Executive Director Sol Rodriguez said. "People with criminal records who are trying to get their lives together need support, not a system which throws them back in jail for having trouble paying court fees."

The report found people were sent to the Adult Correctional Institutions 2,446 times in 2007 for missing "ability to pay" hearings, spending an average of three days and two nights behind bars. While most were released after a few days, "several hundred a year spend a week or more just for court debt," the report said.

"Overall, there is a haste to incarcerate individuals for court debt in the state which causes unnecessary, damaging jail time, is an inefficient use of state finances, and disrupts people's lives," the report said. "Incarceration for court debt interrupts medical and rehabilitation treatment, causes individuals to be fired from employment, disrupts families and disrupts housing situations."

The report urges passage of bills introduced by Rep. J. Patrick O'Neill, D-Pawtucket, and Sen. Harold M. Metts, D-Providence. House Bill 8093 and Senate Bill 2234 call for holding hearings within 48 hours to gauge a person's ability to pay, using a financial assessment form and spelling out the types of government assistance that constitute evidence of a limited ability to pay.

The report also recommends using a variety of collection methods before sending people to prison and slashing the warrant fee from $125 to $25 for people brought into court on a warrant.

"One of the most effective ways to avoid this problem is to create a more reasonable system of court fees," Family Life Center policy researcher Nick Horton said. "Rhode Island far and away has higher fees than other New England states. That's the source of this cycle of debt."

Horton said most people do pay the fees and fines imposed by courts, but "for people who can't pay, there needs to be a more concerted effort to waive fines and fees rather than to continue trying to wring blood from a stone."

Overall, 66 percent of the people jailed in connection with court debt were either first-time offenders or had showed up three consecutive times for prior ability-to-pay hearings, the report said. "This contradicts the notion that judges only use incarceration on people that are serially delinquent," the report said.

So what would be the incentive to pay fines and court fees if judges began waiving them with greater frequency? "The idea is that judges consider the person's ability to pay and payment history, and in cases where it's clear the person is unable to pay, judges would eliminate or reduce fines," Horton replied. "So it's not as if they are being wiped out across the board. And if there is an ability to pay, they will still be expected to pay, but they won't be incarcerated unnecessarily. There is still incentive to pay because the fines could increase, and ultimately they could still end up in jail."

The report focuses in part on District Court in Providence, saying that court processes the most cases in the state and deals with the majority of people who owe court debts.

When asked to respond to the report and the legislation, Chief District Court Judge Albert E. DeRobbio said people aren't being locked up because they didn't pay court costs; rather, they're being incarcerated for short periods for failing to obey court orders to appear in court, he said.

"What are we supposed to do? Have a new set of rules that you don't enforce?" DeRobbio asked. "We'd lose all kinds of credibility if we just said, 'OK, ignore it. They didn't show up. We hope they show up next time.' "

District Court judges "don't deprive people of their freedom for no reason at all or failure to pay," DeRobbio said. "Judges of this court are very conscientious about deprivation of liberties, especially about an ability to pay."

As for provisions in the bills, DeRobbio said that if the proposal is "to have an immediate hearing on an ability to pay, you better get about 10 more judges because it's going to take time to fill out the forms and check the background of finances and expenses. If you do that in every case and do it right away, you'll need special calendars and special judges."

DeRobbio noted the state already knocks $150 off a person's court fees and fines for every day they spend in prison in connection with such court debt.

The report said that since that credit jumped to $150 per day in 2006, the number of people held at the ACI in connection with court debt has decreased — going from an average of 24 people a day to an average 18 a day.

But Horton said, "There has to be a better way" because under the current system, the state is losing money twice: by paying an estimated $95 per day to hold a person at the ACI's Intake Service Center and by reducing court debt by $150 per day.

The report — available at riflc.org/pagetool/reports/CourtDebt.pdf — said its recommendations would "decrease the number of unnecessary and costly incarcerations, reduce the burden of fines on the indigent, and lower the prison population."

Rhode Island's prison population reached an all-time high of 4,000 last year, and state officials have been weighing proposals to trim it to avoid reaching a court-imposed population cap and to save money. The state is facing a projected $384-million budget deficit in the coming fiscal year. And the prison population, which typically increases in the spring and summer, stood at 3,851 on Friday, spokeswoman Tracey Z. Poole said.

"Our state can no longer afford to unnecessarily incarcerate people for court debt," Horton said. "There simply isn't room at the prison."

The report said that if all those jailed in connection with court debt had been released within 48 hours last year, the state would have saved about $200,000 and lowered its awaiting-trial population by about 13 people per day.

Poole said the Department of Corrections has taken no position on the proposed legislation. "Anything that has the effect of reducing commitments will affect the population, but how that translates into cost savings is more complicated," she said. "These people are here for very short periods of time, and they are coming and going. So we're not going to be able to shut down a unit. You have to have a critical mass in order to close down a unit, which would result in significant cost savings."

When asked for reaction, courts spokesman Craig N. Berke said, "There is a process currently in place to assess a defendant's ability to pay, but it's entirely within the legislature's prerogative to amend that process."

Assistant public defender Michael A. DiLauro, who is listed as an adviser on the report, said, "How much money does it cost to attempt to collect money from people by incarcerating them and how much is realized from it? That's a conversation we need to have. We know what the answer is: these people can't pay, so they stay in jail 7, 10, 14 days, and how much does that cost? There's no way you can tell me this is an efficient, businesslike, common-sense way of doing things."

DiLauro said the bills do not mandate that judges waive court debts. "It doesn't bind the judge's hand," he said. "It just says that's a factor."

DiLauro said it makes sense to use a financial assessment form to gauge a person's ability to pay fines and court costs. "It's a comprehensive, standardized way of doing things," he said.