"Jada was released from prison in 2010 and has been paying off her criminal legal debt since she came home. In 2022, she learned that she owed thousands of dollars in another county; she had no idea this debt existed:
'I’ve been paying off this case so much. It’s like a regular bill, like a mortgage. Every time I look at it I’m like, ‘It still is at how much? This is crazy.’ That’s when I found out about all the other charges that are still attached to the case, including being supervised at probation. Every day that you’re on probation, you’re being charged.'" pg.23
📶 The financialization of the criminal legal system has resulted in widespread indebtedness, leading to immense emotional and financial stress. Family members often bear the burden, risking their assets to bail out loved ones or facing financial strain due to legal costs. The opacity in financial systems makes it difficult for justice-impacted individuals to determine the total owed amount. Many find themselves caught in a cycle of poverty, because of the money they owe.
📚 As a reminder, for further context: "Research shows that the criminal legal system punishes Black people more severely than White people (Rehavi and Starr 2014; Schmitt, Reedt, and Blackwell 2017) ... With respect to purely financial impacts, some research shows that the family of an incarcerated person pays over $13,000, on average, in court- related costs, and one in three families go into debt to cover costs (deVuono-Powell et al. 2015). Women bear the brunt of these financial burdens. This is money that could otherwise be used to invest in assets and build wealth." pg. 9
This report is broader effort by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey to bring a more nuanced discussion of wealth-building to Philadelphia. S/O to co-authors Samantha Porter and Lisa Servon.