50-State Criminal Justice Debt Reform Builder Bringing transparency to areas of significant legal complexity.
Poverty Penalties and Poverty Traps
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See all poverty penalty and poverty trap policy recommendations in CJPP’s Policy Guide
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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.
27 Results
| State | Statute | Description/Statute Name | Statutory language | Type of poverty penalty or poverty trap | Level of offense | Mandatory | |
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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.
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Payment plan/installment plan | All | Yes |
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Arkansas | Ark. Code Ann. § 16-98-304(b) | Cost and Fees |
(b)(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
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Condition or extension of supervision | All | Yes |
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Arkansas | Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-204(a) | Collection After Default |
When a defendant sentenced to pay a fine or costs defaults in the payment of the fine or costs or of any installment, the fine or costs may be collected by any means authorized for the enforcement of a money judgment in a civil action.
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Wage/bank account garnishment | All | No |
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Arkansas | Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-204(a) | Collection After Default |
When a defendant sentenced to pay a fine or costs defaults in the payment of the fine or costs or of any installment, the fine or costs may be collected by any means authorized for the enforcement of a money judgment in a civil action.
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Property liens | All | No |
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Arkansas | Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-204(b) | Collection After Default |
A judgment that the defendant pay a fine or costs constitutes a lien on the real property and personal property of the defendant in the same manner and to the same extent as a money judgment in a civil action.
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Property liens | All | Yes |
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Arkansas | Ark. Code Ann. § 17-1-103(d)(1) | Registration, Certification, and Licensing for Criminal Offenders |
For the purposes of this section, completion of the following shall be deemed prima facie evidence of sufficient rehabilitation: (1) Probation or parole supervision. |
Driver's license suspension/impoundment | All | No |
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Arkansas | Ark. Code Ann. § 16-17-131 | Suspension of License for Failure to Appear |
(a) A person required to appear before a district court in this state, having been served with any form of notice to appear for any criminal offense, traffic violation, or misdemeanor charge, shall appear at the time and place designated in the notice.
(b)(1) If a person fails to appear as required in subsection (a) of this section, the presiding judge may suspend the person's driver's license.(2) The license shall be suspended until the person appears and completes the sentence ordered by the court.(3) After the person satisfies all requirements of the sentence, the Department of Finance and Administration shall assess the current fees for reinstatement of a driver's license. |
Driver's license suspension/impoundment | All | No |
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Arkansas | Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-202 | Alternative Sentence Prohibited -- Time of Payment |
(a) If the defendant is sentenced to pay a fine or costs, the court shall not at the same time impose an alternative sentence or imprisonment to be served if the fine or costs are not paid.
(b)(1) If a defendant is sentenced to pay a fine or costs, the court may grant permission for payment to be made:(A) Within a specified period of time; or(B) In specified installments.(2) If permission under subdivision (b)(1) of this section is not granted in the sentence, the fine or costs are payable immediately. |
Payment plan/installment plan | All | No |
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Arkansas | Ark. Code Ann. § 16-92-104 | Costs and Fees -- Capital Cases |
The costs in all cases of conviction where the convict may be sentenced to suffer death, and all expenses attending the execution of the sentence, shall be adjudged and taxed by the court and paid out of the estate of the convict, and execution may be issued against the estate of the convict therefor.
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Property liens | Felony | Yes |
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Arkansas | Ark. Code Ann. § 16-92-102 | Costs and Fees -- Execution |
(a) The clerk of the court, at the end of each term, shall issue executions for all fines imposed on indictments, in penal actions, or otherwise, and for the costs of conviction in criminal cases during the term, and remaining unpaid, which shall be executed in the same manner as executions in civil cases. The property of the defendant may be seized and sold, notwithstanding that he or she may be in custody for the same demand.
(b) In every case where a witness is summoned by a special subpoena to testify in a particular case in which an indictment may be found, it shall be the duty of the clerk to tax the attendance of the witness with the cost of the suit, to be collected from the defendant, in the event that judgment shall be rendered against him or her therefor, and to be paid into the county treasury. |
Property liens | All | No |
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Arkansas | Ark. Code Ann. § 16-92-101(a) | Costs and Fees -- Defendant's Property Bound From Time of Arrest |
The property, both real and personal, of any person charged with a criminal offense shall be bound from the time of his or her arrest or the finding of an indictment against him or her, whichever shall first happen, for the payment of all fines and costs which he or she may be adjudged to pay. However, no such lien shall be enforced unless the county judge of the county in which the judgment is rendered on the criminal charge shall file, or cause to be filed, with the circuit clerk of the county in which the person may own property, and within six (6) months after the rendition of judgment against the person, a notice of lis pendens as provided for in §§ 16-59-101 -- 16-59-105, 16-59-107, and 16-66-402 and shall cause suit to be instituted to enforce the lien within two (2) years after the date of the filing of the notice.
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Property liens | All | Yes |
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Arkansas | A.C.A. § 3-3-102 | Sentences and Fines |
(a) When a jail sentence is inflicted as part of the punishment, all persons convicted under this act shall serve out the sentence at hard labor; (b) All fines and costs assessed against any person under this act and not paid or replevied shall be served out by confinement at hard labor at the rate of one (1) day for each one dollar ($1.00) of the fine and costs.
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Work program/jail industry program | All | No |
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Delaware | 11 Del. C. § 4104(e) | Fines, Costs or Restitution; How Collected; Holding Operator's License as Security for Payment |
Whenever any person lawfully possessed of an operator's license theretofore issued to the person by the Division of Motor Vehicles of the Department of Transportation of the State, or under the laws of any other state or territory, or of the District of Columbia, shall be arrested and charged with any violation of the traffic or criminal laws of this State, or of any political subdivision thereof, a court, as a condition of sentencing, may take and hold, as security for the payment of any fine, costs, restitution or Victims Compensation Fund assessment, the operator's license so issued to the defendant.
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Driver's license suspension/impoundment | All | No |
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Delaware | 11 Del. C. § 4104(c) | Fines, Costs or Restitution; How Collected; Holding Operator's License as Security for Payment |
Any court may, in its discretion, direct any person sentenced to pay a fine or restitution upon conviction of a crime, who is employed within this State or by a Delaware resident or employer, to execute an assignment of a specified periodic sum not to exceed 1/3 of the person's total earnings, which assignment shall direct the person's employer to withhold and remit that amount to this State up to the total of the fine, costs and restitution imposed.
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Wage/bank account garnishment | All | No |
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Delaware | 11 Del. C. § 4104(a)(1)-(2) | Fines, Costs or Restitution; How Collected; Holding Operator's License as Security for Payment |
When a court imposes a fine, costs or restitution upon a defendant, the court or justice of the peace may direct as follows:(1) That the defendant pay the entire amount at the time sentence is imposed; (2) That the defendant pay a specified portion of the fine, costs or restitution at designated periodic intervals, and in such case may direct that the fine, costs or restitution be remitted to a probation officer who shall report to the court, at such periods as the court may direct, any failure to comply with the orders; or
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Payment plan/installment plan | All | No |
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Delaware | 11 Del. C. § 4104(a)(3) | Fines, Costs or Restitution; How Collected; Holding Operator's License as Security for Payment |
(a) When a court imposes a fine, costs or restitution upon a defendant, the court or justice of the peace may direct as follows: . . . (3) Where the defendant is sentenced to a period of probation as well as fine, costs or restitution that payment of the fines, costs or restitution shall be a condition of the probation.
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Condition or extension of supervision | All | Yes |
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Delaware | 11 Del. C. § 4105(b)(1) | Default in Payment of Fine; Inability to Pay |
Where a person sentenced to pay a fine, costs, restitution or all 3, on conviction of a crime is unable or fails to pay such fine, costs, restitution or all 3, at the time of imposition of sentence or in accordance with the terms of payment set by the court, the court may order the person to report at any time to the Commissioner of the Department of Correction, or a person designated by the Commissioner, for work for a number and schedule of hours necessary to discharge the fine, costs or restitution imposed.
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Work program/jail industry program | All | No |
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Delaware | 11 Del. C. § 4105(d) | Default in Payment of Fine; Inability to Pay |
Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, where a defendant sentenced to be imprisoned is ordered to pay a fine, costs, restitution or all 3, the court may order an additional sentence of imprisonment in lieu of requiring the payment of the fine, costs, restitution or all 3; provided, however, that this additional sentence of imprisonment may not exceed 30 days, to be served concurrently or consecutively with the sentence originally imposed, as the court may order.
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Incarceration | All | No |
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Delaware | 21 Del. C. § 2732(b) | Mandatory Revocation or Suspension of License or Refusal to Renew or Issue a Duplicate License |
Upon receiving a record of the failure of a convicted person to pay a fine, costs or both as described in § 2731(b) of this title, or to timely complete a course of instruction pursuant to § 4175A or § 4177D of this title, the Department or its successor, shall: (1) If the convicted person is a resident of this State, forthwith suspend the convicted person's license until the fine, costs or both have been paid, or the court finds that the person has completed the necessary course of instruction and paid all applicable fees; and (2) If the convicted person is a nonresident of this State, forthwith suspend the convicted person's driving privileges in this State and immediately advise the Motor Vehicle Administrator of the state wherein the convicted person is a resident that the convicted person has failed to pay a fine, costs or both, or to timely complete a course of instruction pursuant to § 4175A or § 4177D of this title, and requesting that the convicted person's license to drive be suspended until the fine, costs or both have been paid, or the court finds that the person has completed the necessary course of instruction and paid all applicable fees.
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Driver's license suspension/impoundment | All | Yes |
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Nebraska | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-2206(1) | Fine and costs; commitment until paid; installments; deduction from bond; suspension or revocation of motor vehicle operator’s license. |
(1)(a) In all cases in which courts or magistrates have now or may hereafter have the power to punish offenses, either in whole or in part, by requiring the offender to pay fines or costs, or both, such courts or magistrates may make it a part of the sentence that the party stand committed and be imprisoned in the jail of the proper county until the fines or costs are paid or secured to be paid or the offender is otherwise discharged according to law if the court or magistrate determines that the offender has the financial ability to pay such fines or costs.
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Incarceration | All | No |
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.