Washington Courts: Press Release Detail

June 6 Symposium Explores Unequal Impacts, Possible Solutions to Court Fines and Fees

The issue of court fines and fees — their disparate impact on people of low income, and possible solutions for this disparity — will be explored at a Supreme Court Symposium on June 6th.  The annual Symposium, presented by the Court’s Minority and Justice Commission, will be followed by a conference sponsored by the University of Washington’s Department of Sociology.

The Symposium begins at 9 a.m. at the Seattle University School of Law, Sullivan Hall, 901 12th Ave., Seattle, and is open to the public. It will be live-streamed by TVW and recorded for later viewing.

Monetary sanctions such as court costs, fines and fees are known as Legal Financial Obligations — LFOs — and concern has been growing in Washington and nationally that LFOs can create endless cycles of debt and imprisonment and, essentially, “the criminalization of poverty.” In 2016, Washington was one of five states awarded a $500,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Justice to seek out strategies “to structure criminal justice legal financial obligations in ways that support, rather than undermine, rehabilitation and successful reintegration of justice-involved individuals into communities.”

The three-year grant was awarded to the M&J Commission and is supported by several statewide stakeholders.

This year’s Symposium will feature a presentation from Dr. Alexes Harris, author of A Pound of Flesh; a panel of formerly incarcerated individuals who will discuss the impact of LFO’s, and a status update on the work funded by the DOJ grant including a new LFO calculator designed for judges in collaboration with Microsoft.

“We are very excited about providing an update to the Court on the tremendous work that has been done in gathering data about the imposition and collection of LFO’s in our state,” said Washington Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu, co-chair of the Minority and Justice Commission. “We know that good data is necessary for good decisions and real reform.”

The Washington State Minority and Justice Commission was established by the state Supreme Court in 1990 to determine whether racial and ethnic bias exists in the courts of Washington and to take creative steps to overcome and prevent them. The Commission grew out of a task force established in 1988 at the urging of state legislators.

CONTACT: Cynthia Delostrinos, Administrative Manager for the Supreme Court Commissions, (360) 705-5327, Cynthia.Delostrinos@courts.wa.gov