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.

Every law can be saved to the Reform Builder  

See all poverty penalty and poverty trap policy recommendations in CJPP’s Policy Guide

State

Keyword search

Reset

Reset all filters

Type of poverty penalty or poverty trap

Mandatory

Narrrow results

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.

8 Results

Export results to Excel

State Statute Description/Statute Name Statutory language Type of poverty penalty or poverty trap Level of offense Mandatory
BS-+-Light-Rounded-Square
Add to Dashboard

+ Create New

 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 more
fee 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
BS-+-Light-Rounded-Square
Add to Dashboard

+ Create New

 Louisiana CCRP 884 Sentence of fine with imprisonment for default
If a sentence imposed includes a fine or costs, the sentence shall provide that in default of payment thereof the defendant shall be imprisoned for a specified period not to
+ See more
exceed one year; provided that where the maximum prison sentence which may be imposed as a penalty for a misdemeanor is six months or less, the total period of imprisonment upon conviction of the offense, including imprisonment for default in payment of a fine or costs, shall not exceed six months for that offense.
 Incarceration All No
BS-+-Light-Rounded-Square
Add to Dashboard

+ Create New

 Louisiana CCRP 885 fine and costs
A defendant who has been imprisoned for default in the payment of a fine, or fine and costs, under a sentence imposed pursuant to Article 884, may, at any time
+ See more
before expiration of the term of imprisonment, obtain his release by paying to his custodian all of the costs imposed and a sum of money that bears the same proportion to the imposed fine as the term of alternate imprisonment yet to run bears to the whole of such term of imprisonment.
 Incarceration All No
BS-+-Light-Rounded-Square
Add to Dashboard

+ Create New

 Louisiana La. Stat. Ann. § 13:4611 Contempt
For any other contempt of court, including disobeying an order for the payment of child support or spousal support or an order for the right of custody or visitation, by
+ See more
a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment for not more than three months, or both.
 Incarceration All No
BS-+-Light-Rounded-Square
Add to Dashboard

+ Create New

 Louisiana LA Rev Stat §13:1377.A Thirty day jail term
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
+ See more
costs of court not to exceed the sum of one hundred dollars, such costs to be in addition to any fine, clerk's fees 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
BS-+-Light-Rounded-Square
Add to Dashboard

+ Create New

 Louisiana LA REV Stat §30:2531.6.H(3) Failure to pay fine for littering offense His failure to appear at this second hearing could subject him to another charge of contempt of court along with the punishment of serving time in jail. Incarceration Misdemeanor No
BS-+-Light-Rounded-Square
Add to Dashboard

+ Create New

 Alabama Ala.Code 1975 § 14-4-10 Hard labor; additional sentence

Whenever any convict is sentenced by the court and required to do hard labor for the county, an additional sentence not to exceed 10 months in any case for the

+ See more
payment of costs of conviction may be imposed, and the court must determine a reasonable time required to work out such costs. The costs of conviction of county convicts shall be the same as provided by law now in force in the respective counties.

 Incarceration All No
BS-+-Light-Rounded-Square
Add to Dashboard

+ Create New

 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

+ See more
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

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.