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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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.
7 Results
| State | Statute | Description/Statute Name | Statutory language | Type of poverty penalty or poverty trap | Level of offense | Mandatory | |
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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 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.
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Incarceration | All | Yes |
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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 performs it. In that case the act to be performed must be specified in the warrant of the commitment.
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Incarceration | All | No |
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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 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 |
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Texas | Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Art. 42A.751(b),(e) | Violation of Conditions of Community Supervision; Detention and Hearing |
(b) At any time during the period of community supervision, the judge may issue a warrant for a violation of any condition of community supervision and cause the defendant to be arrested. Any supervision officer, police officer, or other officer with the power of arrest may arrest the defendant with or without a warrant on the order of the judge to be noted on the docket of the court. Subject to Subsection (c), a defendant arrested under this subsection may be detained in the county jail or other appropriate place of confinement until the defendant can be taken before the judge for a determination regarding the alleged violation.
(e) A judge may revoke without a hearing the community supervision of a defendant who is imprisoned in a penal institution if the defendant in writing before a court of record or a notary public in the jurisdiction where the defendant is imprisoned |
Incarceration | All | No |
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Texas | Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 706.002 | Denial of renewal of driver's license |
A political subdivision may contract with the department to provide information necessary for the department to deny renewal of the driver’s license of a person who fails to appear for a complaint or citation or fails to pay or satisfy a judgment ordering payment of a fine and cost in the manner ordered by the court in a matter involving any offense that a court has jurisdiction of under Chapter 4, Code of Criminal Procedure.
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Driver's license suspension/impoundment | All | No |
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Texas | Tex. Gov't Code Sec. 21.002(a)-(c) | Contempt of Court |
(a) Except as provided by Subsection (g), a court may punish for contempt. (b) The punishment for contempt of a court other than a justice court or municipal court is a fine of not more than $500 or confinement in the county jail for not more than six months, or both such a fine and confinement in jail.
(c) The punishment for contempt of a justice court or municipal court is a fine of not more than $100 or confinement in the county or city jail for not more than three days, or both such a fine and confinement in jail. |
Incarceration, Increased fine | All | No |
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Texas | Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Art. 43.03(a) | Payment of Fine |
If a defendant is sentenced to pay a fine or costs or both and the defendant defaults in payment, the court after a hearing under Subsection (d) of this article may order the defendant confined in jail until discharged as provided by law, may order the defendant to discharge the fines and costs in any other manner provided by Article 43.09 of this code, or may waive payment of the fines and costs as provided by Article 43.091. A certified copy of the judgment, sentence, and order is sufficient to authorize confinement under this subsection
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Incarceration | All | No |
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