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Poverty Penalties and Poverty Traps

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	State	Statute	Description/Statute Name	Statutory language	Type of poverty penalty or poverty trap	Level of offense	Mandatory
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Hawaii	Haw. Rev. Stat. § 601-17.5	Collection of delinquent court-ordered payments	The judiciary may contract with a collection agency bonded under chapter 443B or with a licensed attorney to collect any delinquent court-ordered penalties, fines, restitution, sanctions, and court costs, including + See more juvenile monetary assessments. Any fees or costs associated with the collection efforts shall be added to the amount due and retained by the collection agency as its payment; provided that no fees or costs shall exceed fifty per cent of the amount collected.	Collection fee/interest	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Hawaii	Haw. Rev. Stat. § 706-644(1)	Consequences of nonpayment; imprisonment for contumacious nonpayment; summary collection	(1) When a defendant is sentenced pursuant to section 706-605, granted a conditional discharge pursuant to section 712-1255, or granted a deferred plea pursuant to chapter 853, and the defendant + See more is ordered to pay a fee, fine, or restitution, whether as an independent order, as part of a judgment and sentence, or as a condition of probation or deferred plea, and the defendant defaults in the payment thereof or of any installment, the court, upon the motion of the prosecuting attorney or upon its own motion, may require the defendant to show cause why the defendant's default should not be treated as contumacious and may issue a summons or a warrant of arrest for the defendant's appearance. Unless the defendant shows that the defendant's default was not attributable to an intentional refusal to obey the order of the court, or to a failure on the defendant's part to make a good faith effort to obtain the funds required for the payment, the court shall find that the defendant's default was contumacious and may order the defendant committed until the fee, fine, restitution, or a specified part thereof is paid.	Incarceration	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Hawaii	Haw. Rev. Stat. § 706-644(4)	Consequences of nonpayment; imprisonment for contumacious nonpayment; summary collection	(4) If it appears that the defendant's default in the payment of a fee, fine, or restitution is not contumacious, the court may make an order allowing the defendant additional + See more time for payment, reducing the amount of each installment, or revoking the fee, fine, or the unpaid portion thereof in whole or in part, or converting the unpaid portion of the fee or fine to community service. A defendant shall not be discharged from an order to pay restitution until the full amount of the restitution has actually been collected or accounted for.	Community service	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Hawaii	Haw. Rev. Stat. § 706-644(5)	Consequences of nonpayment; imprisonment for contumacious nonpayment; summary collection	(5) Unless discharged by payment or, in the case of a fee or fine, service of imprisonment pursuant to subsection (3), an order to pay a fee, fine, or restitution, + See more whether as an independent order, as a part of a judgment and sentence, or as a condition of probation or deferred plea pursuant to chapter 853, may be collected in the same manner as a judgment in a civil action. The State or the victim named in the order may collect the restitution, including costs, interest, and attorney's fees, pursuant to section 706-646. The State may collect the fee or fine, including costs, interest, and attorney's fees pursuant to section 706-647.	Civil judgment	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Hawaii	Haw. Rev. Stat. § 706-644(3)	Consequences of nonpayment; imprisonment for contumacious nonpayment; summary collection	(3) The term of imprisonment for nonpayment of fee, fine, or restitution shall be specified in the order of commitment, and shall not exceed one day for each $25 of + See more the fee or fine, thirty days if the fee or fine was imposed upon conviction of a violation or a petty misdemeanor, or one year in any other case, whichever is the shorter period. A person committed for nonpayment of a fee or fine shall be given credit toward payment of the fee or fine for each day of imprisonment, at the rate of $25 per day.	Incarceration	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Iowa	Iowa Code § 909.5	Nonpayment of fines and court costs — contempt	A person who is able to pay a fine, court-imposed court costs for a criminal proceeding, or both, or an installment of the fine or the court-imposed court costs, or + See more both, and who refuses to do so, or who fails to make a good faith effort to pay the fine, court costs, or both, or any installment thereof, shall be held in contempt of court.	Incarceration	All	Yes
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Iowa	Iowa Code § 665.4	Contempts: Punishment	The punishment for contempt, where not otherwise specifically provided, shall be: 1. In the supreme court or the court of appeals, by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or by + See more imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. 2. Before district judges, district associate judges, and associate juvenile judges by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding six months or by both such fine and imprisonment. 3. Before judicial magistrates, by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars or imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding thirty days.	Increased fine	All	Yes
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Iowa	Iowa Code § 665.5	Contempts: Imprisonment	If the contempt consists in an omission to perform an act which is yet in the power of the person to perform, the person may be imprisoned until the person + See more performs it. In that case the act to be performed must be specified in the warrant of the commitment.	Incarceration	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Iowa	Iowa Code § 8A.504(d)(3),(2)	Setoff Procedures	d. “Qualifying debt” includes, but is not limited to, the following: (3) Any debt which is in the form of a liquidated sum due, owing, and payable to the clerk of + See more the district court. 2. Setoff procedure. The collection entity shall establish and maintain a procedure to set off against any claim owed to a person by a public agency any liability of that person owed to a public agency, a support debt being enforced by the child support recovery unit pursuant to chapter 252B, or such other qualifying debt.	Wage/bank account garnishment	All	Yes
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Iowa	Iowa Code § 321.210A(1)	Suspension for failure to pay fine, surcharge, or costs	1. The department shall suspend the driver’s license of a person who, upon conviction of violating a law regulating the operation of a motor vehicle, has failed to pay the criminal + See more fine or penalty, surcharge, or court costs, as follows: a. Upon the failure of a person to timely pay the fine, penalty, surcharge, or court costs the clerk of the district court shall notify the person by regular mail that if the fine, penalty, surcharge, or court costs remain unpaid after sixty days from the date of mailing, the clerk will notify the department of the failure for purposes of instituting suspension procedures. b. Upon the failure of a person to pay the fine, penalty, surcharge, or court costs within sixty days’ notice by the clerk of the district court as provided in paragraph “b”, the clerk shall report the failure to the department. c. Upon receipt of a report of a failure to pay the fine, penalty, surcharge, or court costs from the clerk of the district court, the department shall in accordance with its rules, suspend the person’s driver’s license until the fine, penalty, surcharge, or court costs are paid.	Driver's license suspension/impoundment	Traffic	Yes
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Montana	Mont. Code Ann. § 46-18-244(3)(a)	Type and time of payment--defenses--ensuring payment	In addition to other methods of payment, the court may order one or more of the following in order to satisfy the offender's restitution obligation: (a) forfeiture and sale of + See more the offender's assets under the provisions of Title 25, chapter 13, part 7, unless the court finds, after notice and an opportunity for the offender to be heard, that the assets are reasonably necessary for the offender to sustain a living or support the offender's dependents or unless the state determines that the cost of forfeiture and sale would outweigh the amount available to the victim after sale. If the proceeds of sale exceed the amount of restitution ordered and the costs of forfeiture and sale, any remaining amount must be returned to the offender	Property liens	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Montana	Mont. Code Ann. § 46-18-244(6)	Type and time of payment--defenses--ensuring payment	For a felony offense: (a) during any period that the offender is incarcerated, the department of corrections shall take a percentage, as set by department rule, of any money in + See more any account of the defendant administered by the department and use the money to satisfy any existing restitution obligation; (b) at the beginning of any period during which the offender is not incarcerated, the offender shall sign a statement allowing any employer of the offender to garnish up to 25% of the offender's compensation and give the garnished amounts to the department of corrections to be used by the department to satisfy any existing restitution obligation; and (c) during any period that the defendant is on probation or parole, the probation and parole officer shall set a monthly restitution payment amount by dividing the total amount of unpaid restitution by the number of remaining months of probation or parole. The probation and parole officer may adjust the monthly payment up or down by a maximum of 10%, depending on the offender's circumstances.	Wage/bank account garnishment	All	Yes
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Montana	Mont. Code Ann. § 46-18-244(7)	Type and time of payment--defenses--ensuring payment	The department of corrections shall give the department of revenue a copy of the order to pay restitution. If full restitution has not been paid, the department of revenue shall, + See more pursuant to an agreement made under 46-18-241, intercept any state tax refunds and any federal tax refunds, as provided by law, due the offender and transfer the money to the department of corrections for a felony offense and to the sentencing court for a misdemeanor offense for disbursement to the victim.	Wage/bank account garnishment	All	Yes
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Montana	Mont. Code Ann. § 46-18-208	Termination of remaining portion of deferred or suspended sentence--petition	When imposition of a sentence has been deferred or execution of a sentence has been suspended, the prosecutor or defendant may file a petition to terminate the time remaining on + See more the sentenceThe court may grant the petition if it finds that...the defendant has paid all restitution and court-ordered financial obligations in full.	Incarceration	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Montana	Mont. Code Ann. § 46-18-233	Fine or costs as condition on suspended or deferred sentence	(1) Whenever a defendant is sentenced to pay a fine or costs under 46-18-231 or 46-18-232 and the imposition or execution of the rest of the defendant's sentence is deferred + See more or suspended, the court may make payment of the fine or costs a condition for probation. (2) A suspended or deferred sentence may not be revoked if the defendant defaults on the payment of the fine and the default is not attributable to an intentional refusal to obey the order of the court or a failure to make a good faith effort to make the payment.	Incarceration	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Montana	Mont. Code Ann. § 46-18-237	Garnishment--report by supervising authority	(1) If the department of corrections becomes aware that a person while incarcerated under the legal custody of the department of corrections or a person supervised by the department is + See more entitled to receive money from any source, the person's supervising authority may prepare a report... (2) The supervising authority shall provide notice and a copy of the report to the office of victims services in the department of justice and the county attorney for the county in which the person was sentenced, either of whom may submit the report along with a petition for garnishment to the court that sentenced the person. The court may order garnishment of the person's money for the payment of restitution, child support, and per diem costs of incarceration owed by the person. Upon receipt of the petition, the court shall provide a copy of the report to the person, who has 15 days following receipt to file an objection. The court may hold a hearing to consider objections raised by the person. (3) Upon compliance with the provisions of subsections (1) and (2), the court shall determine the amount of restitution, child support, and repayment for per diem costs owed by the person. The court shall order, up to the amount of money available, payment of an amount equal to the restitution owed by the person to the person designated under 46-18-245 to supervise the making of restitution payments, any outstanding child support payments to the department of public health and human services for disbursement to the obligee, and per diem costs owed by the person. All restitution owed by the person must be paid prior to payment of any child support payments. All child support owed by the person must be paid prior to the payment of any per diem costs.	Wage/bank account garnishment	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Montana	Mont. Code Ann. § 46-18-201(3)	Sentences that may be imposed	(a) Whenever a person has been found guilty of an offense upon a verdict of guilty or a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, a sentencing judge may impose a + See more sentence that may include: (i) a fine as provided by law for the offense; (ii) payment of costs, as provided in 46-18-232, or payment of costs of assigned counsel as provided in 46-8-113... (b) A court may permit a part or all of a fine to be satisfied by a donation of food to a food bank program.	Community service	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Montana	Mont. Code Ann. § 46-18-201(6)	Sentences that may be imposed	In addition to any of the penalties, restrictions, or conditions imposed pursuant to subsections (1) through (5), the sentencing judge may include the suspension of the license or driving privilege + See more of the person to be imposed upon the failure to comply with any penalty, restriction, or condition of the sentence. A suspension of the license or driving privilege of the person must be accomplished as provided in 61-5-214 through 61-5-217.	Driver's license suspension/impoundment	All	No
Add to Dashboard + Create New	Montana	Mont. Code Ann. § 46-18-601	Judgment in writing--lien	(1) The judgment shall be reduced to writing and signed by the judge. (2) A judgment that the defendant pay a fine or costs constitutes a lien upon the real estate + See more of the defendant, which lien dates from the date of the defendant's arrest.	Property liens	All	Yes

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