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.
Every law can be saved to the Reform Builder
See all poverty penalty and poverty trap policy recommendations in CJPP’s Policy Guide
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.
30 Results
State | Statute | Description/Statute Name | Statutory language | Type of poverty penalty or poverty trap | Level of offense | Mandatory | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Add to Dashboard
|
Virginia | Va. Code Ann. § 53.1-127.3 | Installment payment agreement |
If a person is unable to pay in full the fees owed to the local correctional facility or regional jail pursuant to § 53.1-131.3, the sheriff or jail superintendent shall + See moreestablish a deferred or installment payment agreement subject to the approval of the general district court. As a condition of every such agreement, a person who enters into a deferred or installment payment agreement shall promptly inform the sheriff or jail superintendent of any change of mailing address during the term of the agreement.
|
Payment plan/installment plan | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Virginia | Va. Code Ann. § 19.2-354(A) | Installment Plan |
A. Whenever (i) a defendant, convicted of a traffic infraction or a violation of any criminal law of the Commonwealth or of any political subdivision thereof, or found not innocent + See morein the case of a juvenile, is sentenced to pay a fine, restitution, forfeiture or penalty and (ii) the defendant is unable to make payment of the fine, restitution, forfeiture, or penalty and costs within 30 days of sentencing, the court shall order the defendant to pay such fine, restitution, forfeiture or penalty and any costs which the defendant may be required to pay in deferred payments or installments. The court assessing the fine, restitution, forfeiture, or penalty and costs may authorize the clerk to establish and approve individual deferred or installment payment agreements. Any payment agreement authorized under this section shall be consistent with the Rules of Supreme Court of Virginia, including any required minimum payments or other required conditions. The requirements established by the Rules of Supreme Court of Virginia shall be posted in the clerk's office and on the court's website, if a website is available.
|
Payment plan/installment plan | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Virginia | Va. Code Ann. § 19.2-340 | presentment, indictment, information or warrant in recovery of fine |
When any statute or ordinance prescribes a fine, unless it is otherwise expressly provided or would be inconsistent with the manifest intention of the General Assembly, it shall be paid + See moreto the Commonwealth if prescribed by a statute and recoverable by presentment, indictment, information or warrant and paid to the locality if prescribed by an ordinance and recoverable by warrant. Fines imposed and costs taxed in a criminal or traffic prosecution, including a prosecution for a violation of an ordinance adopted pursuant to § 46.2-1220, for committing an offense shall constitute a judgment and, if not paid at the time they are imposed, execution may issue thereon in the same manner as upon any other monetary judgment, subject to the period of limitations provided by § 19.2-341.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Virginia | Va. Code Ann. § 19.2-341 | warrant, presentment, indictment, or information in recovery of other costs |
When any statute or ordinance prescribes a monetary penalty other than a fine, unless it is otherwise expressly provided or would be inconsistent with the manifest intention of the General + See moreAssembly, it shall be paid to the Commonwealth if prescribed by a statute and paid to the locality if prescribed by an ordinance and recoverable by warrant, presentment, indictment, or information. Penalties imposed and costs taxed in any such proceeding shall constitute a judgment and, if not paid at the time they are imposed, execution may issue thereon in the same manner as upon any other monetary judgment.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Louisiana | LA Rev Stat §1381.2. | Orleans ParishSheriff's detention and prison security fee fund |
A. Any defendant, other than an indigent, who pleads guilty or is convicted of an offense by the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans shall be assessed a + See morefee of not less than twenty-five dollars, such costs to be in addition to any fine, clerk's fees, costs due to the criminal court cost fund or sentence imposed by the court. When any defendant, other than an indigent, fails to pay the costs referred to hereinabove, he shall be sentenced to a term of thirty days in the parish prison in default of the payment of same.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
South Carolina | S.C. Code Ann. § 17-25-340. | Incarceration |
If the sheriff or his deputy return on oath that such offender refused to pay or has not any property or not sufficient whereon to levy, then a writ of + See morecapias ad satisfaciendum shall issue whereby he shall be committed to the common jail, until the forfeiture, costs and charges shall be satisfied. Such offender shall be entitled, however, to the privilege of insolvent debtors.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
South Carolina | S.C. Code Ann. § 17-25-350. | Payment plan |
In any offense carrying a fine or imprisonment, the judge or magistrate hearing the case shall, upon a decision of guilty of the accused being determined and it being established + See morethat he is indigent at that time, set up a reasonable payment schedule for the payment of such fine, taking into consideration the income, dependents and necessities of life of the individual. Such payments shall be made to the magistrate or clerk of court as the case may be until such fine is paid in full.
|
Payment plan/installment plan | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
South Carolina | S.C. Code Ann. § 17-25-350. | Contempt/incarceration |
Failure to comply with the payment schedule shall constitute contempt of court; however, imprisonment for contempt may not exceed the amount of time of the original sentence, and where part + See moreof the fine has been paid the imprisonment cannot exceed the remaining pro rata portion of the sentence.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
South Carolina | S.C. Code Ann. § 24-21-100 | civil contempt |
(A) Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 24-19-120, 24-21-440, 24-21-560(B), or 24-21-670, when an individual has not fulfilled the individual's obligations for payment of financial obligations by the end of the + See moreindividual's term of supervision, then the individual shall be placed under quarterly administrative monitoring, as defined in Section 24-21-5, by the department until such time as those financial obligations are paid in full or a consent order of judgment is filed. If the individual under administrative monitoring fails to make reasonable progress toward the payment of such financial obligations, as determined by the department, the department may petition the court to hold an individual in civil contempt for failure to pay the financial obligations. The department shall provide written notice of the petition and any scheduled contempt hearing by depositing the notice in the United States mail with postage prepaid addressed to the person at the address contained in the records of the department. The giving of notice by mail is complete ten days after the deposit of the notice. A certificate by the director of the department or the director's designee that the notice has been sent as required in this section is presumptive proof that the requirements as to notice of petition and any scheduled contempt hearing have been met even if the notice has not been received by the offender. If the court finds the individual has the ability to pay but has not made reasonable progress toward payment, the court may hold the individual in civil contempt of court and may impose a term of confinement in the local detention center until payment of the financial obligations, but in no case to exceed ninety days of confinement. Following any term of confinement, the individual shall be returned to quarterly administrative monitoring by the department. If the individual under administrative monitoring does not have the ability to pay the financial obligations and has no reasonable likelihood of being able to pay in the future, the department may submit a consent order of judgment to the court, which shall relieve the individual of any further administrative monitoring.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Kansas | K.S.A. Const. Bill of Rights § 16 | Imprisonment for debt | No person shall be imprisoned for debt, except in cases of fraud. | Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
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.
|
Payment plan/installment plan | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Tennessee | Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-4-106 | Fines and Costs |
On conviction, the offender shall immediately pay the fine and costs, or give security to pay them, or be imprisoned until they are paid. The fine and costs, if paid + See morebefore execution, shall be paid to the clerk; if paid after execution, to the officer having the execution.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Utah | Utah Code Ann. § 77-32a-10 | Imprisonment for contempt |
The term of imprisonment for contempt for nonpayment of costs shall be set forth in the commitment order, and shall not exceed one day for each $25 of the costs, + See more30 days if the costs were imposed upon conviction of a misdemeanor, or six months in the case of a felony, whichever is the shorter period. A person committed for nonpayment of costs shall be given credit toward payment for each day of imprisonment at the rate specified in the commitment order.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Alabama | Ala.Code 1975 § 15-18-62 | Costs and Fines: willful nonpayment by defendant |
In cases of willful nonpayment of the fine and costs, the defendant shall either be imprisoned in the county jail or, at the discretion of the court, sentenced to hard labor for the county as follows:(1) If the fine and costs do not exceed two hundred fifty dollars ($250), no more than 10 days; (2) If the fine and costs exceed two hundred fifty dollars ($250) but do not exceed five hundred dollars ($500), no more than 20 days; (3) If the fine and costs exceed five hundred dollars ($500), but do not exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), no more than 30 days; and (4) For every additional one hundred dollars ($100) or fractional part thereof, 4 days.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
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 |
Add to Dashboard
|
Arkansas | Ark. Code Ann. § 16-98-304(b) | Cost and Fees |
(1)The drug court judge shall establish a schedule for the payment of costs and fees. . . (7) Court orders for costs and fees shall remain an obligation of the offender with court monitoring until fully paid.
|
Payment plan/installment plan | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Florida | Fla. Stat. §948.09(6) | Payment for cost of supervision and other monetary obligations |
The department shall establish a payment plan for all costs ordered by the courts for collection by the department and a priority order for payments, except that victim restitution payments authorized under s. 948.03(1)(f) take precedence over all other court-ordered payments. The department is not required to disburse cumulative amounts of less than $10 to individual payees established on this payment plan.
|
Payment plan/installment plan | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Florida | Fla. Stat. §948.06(5) | Violation of probation or community control; revocation; modification; continuance; failure to pay restitution or cost of supervision |
In any hearing in which the failure of a probationer or offender in community control to pay restitution or the cost of supervision as provided in s. 948.09, as directed, is established by the state, if the probationer or offender asserts his or her inability to pay restitution or the cost of supervision, it is incumbent upon the probationer or offender to prove by clear and convincing evidence that he or she does not have the present resources available to pay restitution or the cost of supervision despite sufficient bona fide efforts legally to acquire the resources to do so. If the probationer or offender cannot pay restitution or the cost of supervision despite sufficient bona fide efforts, the court shall consider alternate measures of punishment other than imprisonment. Only if alternate measures are not adequate to meet the state's interests in punishment and deterrence may the court imprison a probationer or offender in community control who has demonstrated sufficient bona fide efforts to pay restitution or the cost of supervision.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Florida | Fla. Stat. §951.16 | Prisoners entitled to receive credit on fine based on imprisonment |
Every person who may be imprisoned in the county jail for failure to pay a fine and costs, or either, under sentence imposed upon conviction for crime shall be entitled to receive, together with subsistence, a credit on such fine and costs, or either, as the case may be, in proportion to the time such person may be imprisoned.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
Add to Dashboard
|
Florida | Fla. Stat. §922.04 | Discharge of prisoner unable to pay fine |
When the court determines on the written application of a prisoner that he or she has been imprisoned for 60 days solely for failure to pay a fine or costs which total not more than $300 and that the prisoner is indigent and unable to pay the fine or costs, the court shall order the prisoner discharged from custody.
|
Incarceration | All | Yes |
The Criminal Justice Debt Reform Builder is a project of the National Criminal Justice Debt Initiative of the Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School in collaboration with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and with user experience design by metaLAB (at) Harvard.
For more information, please visit cjpp.law.harvard.edu.