A federal judge in Louisiana last week ruled that criminal court judges in New Orleans have been taking advantage of low-income individuals by not considering the ability to repay debts when assessing fines and penalties.
The judges are accused of redirecting more than $800,000 into a fund that was used to purchase unnecessary insurance policies. As an example of the practice, judges in New Orleans ordered indigent individuals to pay $9,841 in court transcript fees in 2012. The next year, when those fees were redirected into an expense fund for judges, the jurists ordered nearly $275,000 in transcript fees.
The federal judge rule that judges were taking advantage of a conflict of interest by profiting from the court fees they assessed.
“The judges therefore have an institutional incentive to find that criminal defendants are able to pay fines and fees,” the federal ruling reads. “The judges’ practice of failing to inquire into ability to pay is itself indicative of their conflict of interest.”
One plaintiff described being jailed for two weeks until his family was able to pool their money to make a payment that allowed the man to be freed. The man was out of work, impoverished and already struggling to keep up with court costs and probation officer costs from a previous offense. But the judge did not take that into consideration when he asked for mercy from the judge.
