Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School
50-State Criminal Justice Debt Reform Builder Bringing transparency to areas of significant legal complexity.
50-State Criminal Justice Debt Reform Builder Bringing transparency to areas of significant legal complexity.
Poverty Penalties and Poverty Traps
Keyword search across all of the laws in the states. Subject-area tabs above allow you to narrow results. Click the advanced search for further refinement.
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See all poverty penalty and poverty trap policy recommendations in CJPP’s Policy Guide
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- Civil judgment (3)
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- Payment plan/installment plan (2)
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Mandatory
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Level of Offense
Below are the poverty penalties and poverty traps that meet your search criteria. Many include a See related provisions prompt which searches our database for laws that may pertain to your result.
28 Results
| State | Statute | Description/Statute Name | Statutory language | Type of poverty penalty or poverty trap | Level of offense | Mandatory | |
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New York | Penal Law § 60.35(5) | Inmate money |
When a person who is convicted of a crime or violation and sentenced to a term of imprisonment has failed to pay the mandatory surcharge, sex offender registration fee, DNA + See moredatabank fee, crime victim assistance fee or supplemental sex offender victim fee required by this section, the clerk of the court that rendered the conviction shall notify the superintendent or the municipal official of the facility where the person is confined. The superintendent or the municipal official shall cause any amount owing to be collected from such person during his or her term of imprisonment from moneys to the credit of an inmates' fund or such moneys as may be earned by a person in a work release program pursuant to section eight hundred sixty of the correction law.
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Wage/bank account garnishment | All | Yes |
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New York | N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 1809(5) | Inmate money |
The superintendent or the municipal official shall cause any amount owing to be collected from such person during his term of imprisonment from moneys to the credit of an inmates' + See morefund or such moneys as may be earned by a person in a work release program pursuant to section eight hundred sixty of the correction law.
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Wage/bank account garnishment | All | Yes |
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New York | N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 1199(4) | License Suspension |
4. If a person shall fail to pay any driver responsibility assessment as provided in this section, the commissioner shall suspend such person's driver's license or privilege of obtaining a + See morelicense. Such suspension shall remain in effect until any and all outstanding driver responsibility assessments have been paid in full.
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Driver's license suspension/impoundment | All | Yes |
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New York | N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 1194(2) | License Suspension | No new driver's license or permit shall be issued, or non-resident operating privilege restored to such person unless such penalty has been paid. | Driver's license suspension/impoundment | All | Yes |
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New York | N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 503 | License Suspension |
(d) If a person shall fail to pay any driver responsibility assessment as provided in this subdivision, the commissioner shall suspend such person's driver's license or privilege of obtaining a + See morelicense. Such suspension shall remain in effect until any and all outstanding driver responsibility assessments have been paid in full.
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Driver's license suspension/impoundment | All | Yes |
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New York | N.Y. Judiciary Law § 792 | Execution of Warrant |
The sheriff to whom a warrant is issued, must collect each fine out of the personal property of the person fined, as prescribed by law or the rules of civil + See morepractice for the collection, by levy upon and sale of personal property, of an execution issued out of a court of record; and he is entitled to like fees thereupon. If sufficient personal property of a delinquent can not be found to pay the fine and the fees, the sheriff must arrest the delinquent, and detain him in custody until he pays the same, as upon an execution against the person, issued in an action, out of the supreme court; and he is entitled to like fees thereupon.
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Property liens | All | Yes |
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New York | N.Y. C.P.L.R. 5226 | Installment Payment Order |
Upon motion of the judgment creditor, upon notice to the judgment debtor, where it is shown that the judgment debtor is receiving or will receive money from any source, or + See moreis attempting to impede the judgment creditor by rendering services without adequate compensation, the court shall order that the judgment debtor make specified installment payments to the judgment creditor.
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Payment plan/installment plan | All | Yes |
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New York | N.Y. C.P.L.R. 5232 | Levy Upon Personal Property |
(a) Levy by service of execution. The sheriff or support collection unit designated by the appropriate social services district shall levy upon any interest of the judgment debtor or obligor + See morein personal property not capable of delivery, or upon any debt owed to the judgment debtor or obligor, by serving a copy of the execution upon the garnishee, in the same manner as a summons, except that such service shall not be made by delivery to a person authorized to receive service of summons solely by a designation filed pursuant to a provision of law other than rule 318.
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Property liens | All | Yes |
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New York | N.Y. C.P.L.R. 5235 | Levy Upon Real Property |
After the expiration of ten years after the filing of the judgment-roll, the sheriff shall levy upon any interest of the judgment debtor in real property, pursuant to an execution + See moreother than one issued upon a judgment for any part of a mortgage debt upon the property, by filing with the clerk of the county in which the property is located a notice of levy describing the judgment, the execution and the property. The clerk shall record and index the notice against the name of the judgment debtor, or against the property, in the same books, and in the same manner as a notice of the pendency of an action.
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Property liens | All | Yes |
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Alaska | Alaska Stat. Ann. § 12.55.025(f) | Sentencing Procedures |
A sentence that the defendant pay money, either as a fine or in restitution or both, constitutes a lien in the same manner as a judgment for money entered in a civil action. Nothing in this section limits the authority of the court to otherwise enforce payment of a fine or restitution.
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Property liens | All | Yes |
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Alaska | AK Const. Art. 1, § 17 | Imprisonment for Debt |
There shall be no imprisonment for debt. This section does not prohibit civil arrest of absconding debtors. |
Incarceration | All | Yes |
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Alaska | Alaska Stat. Ann. § 12.55.041(d) | Correctional Facility Surcharge |
The court shall include a surcharge imposed under (a) of this section in the judgment of conviction. The court shall include the imposition of a surcharge under (c) of this section in the order revoking probation. For a surcharge that is not paid by the person as required by this section, the state shall seek reimbursement from the person's permanent fund dividend as provided under AS 43.23.065. For purposes of collection and priority of attachment under AS 43.23.065, a surcharge imposed under this section is accounted for in the same manner as a cost of imprisonment under AS 28.35.030(k) and 28.35.032(o). The state may enforce payment of a surcharge under this section under AS 09.35 as if it were a civil judgment enforceable by execution. This subsection does not limit the authority of the court to enforce surcharges.
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Property liens | All | Yes |
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Alaska | Alaska Stat. Ann. § 12.55.045(l) | Restitution and Compensation |
An order by the court that the defendant pay restitution is a civil judgment for the amount of the restitution. An order by the court that the defendant pay restitution when the court suspends imposition of sentence under AS 12.55.085 is a civil judgment for the amount of the restitution and remains enforceable and is not discharged when a conviction is set aside under AS 12.55.085. The victim or the state on behalf of the victim may enforce the judgment through any procedure authorized by law for the enforcement of a civil judgment. If the victim enforces or collects restitution through civil process, collection costs and full reasonable attorney fees shall be awarded. If the state on the victim's behalf enforces or collects restitution through civil process, collection costs and full reasonable attorney fees shall be awarded, up to a maximum of twice the amount of restitution owing at the time the civil process was initiated. This section does not limit the authority of the court to enforce orders of restitution.
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Civil judgment | All | Yes |
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Alaska | Alaska Stat. § 28.20.270 | Suspension for Nonpayment of Judgments |
Upon receipt of a certified copy of a judgment and a certificate of facts relative to the judgment, the department shall immediately suspend the license or nonresident’s operating privilege of a person against whom the judgment is given except as otherwise provided in this chapter.
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Driver's license suspension/impoundment | Traffic | Yes |
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Alaska | Alaska Stat. § 12.55.039(c) | Surcharge |
The surcharge shall be paid within 10 days of imposition or such shorter period of time as ordered by the court. Failure to pay the surcharge is punishable as contempt of court. Proceedings to collect the surcharge may be instituted by the state, the municipality, or by the court on its own motion.
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Civil judgment | All | Yes |
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Massachusetts | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276, § 31 | Default Warrant for Failure to Pay — Additional Fees — Payment to Court's Administrative Office. |
Whenever a court issues a default warrant solely due to the person’s failure to pay a fine, assessment, court cost, restitution, support payment or other amount as ordered by the court or required by law, the court shall specify the amount owed, including an additional assessment of $50 which assessment may be waived by the court upon a finding of good cause or upon a finding that such an assessment would cause a substantial financial hardship to the person, the person’s immediate family or the person’s dependents, with a statement that the warrant against the person may be discharged upon payment of the amount and the assessment, if any, and shall note the same in the warrant management system. The administrative office of the trial court shall accept payment of such fine, assessment, court cost, restitution, support payment or other amount as ordered by the court, along with any assessment, to be remitted by mail, telephone or other electronic means, in any form deemed acceptable by the trial court. Upon receipt of payment, the warrant against the person shall be discharged, the discharge shall be noted in the warrant management system and the individual shall receive notice of the discharge within seven days.
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Incarceration, Increased fine | All | Yes |
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Massachusetts | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 279, § 9 | Sentence — Second Sentence for Non-Payment of Fine. |
Except as provided in section one hundred and forty-six of chapter one hundred and twenty-seven, if a convict is sentenced to pay a fine in more than one case and has been committed to a jail, house of correction or other prison or other correctional institution for refusing to pay such fine, the subsequent sentence shall take effect upon the expiration of the imprisonment under the former sentence.
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Incarceration | All | Yes |
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Massachusetts | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 266, § 111B | Fraudulent Motor Vehicle Insurance Claims; Penalties; Reimbursement of Insurer. |
If a defendant who is required to make restitution defaults in any payment of restitution or installment thereof, the court shall hold him in contempt unless said defendant has made a good faith effort to pay such restitution.
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Incarceration | All | Yes |
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Massachusetts | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276, § 30 | Default Warrants — Warrant for Forfeiting or Defaulting on Bail Bond or Recognizance — Fees. |
Any person arrested on a warrant issued because such person has forfeited or defaulted on his bail bond or recognizance or has been surrendered by a probation officer shall be required by the court to pay a fee of $75 payable to the city or town in which such arrest was effected...
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Collection fee/interest | All | Yes |
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Massachusetts | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 266, § 27A | Removing or Concealing Motor Vehicles or Trailers to Defraud Insurers; Reimbursement of Insurers. |
If a defendant who is required to make restitution defaults in any payment of restitution or installment thereof, the court shall hold him in contempt unless said defendant has made a good faith effort to pay such restitution.
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Incarceration | Felony | Yes |
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