Poverty Penalties and Poverty Traps

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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.

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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

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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
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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

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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
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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

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performs it. In that case the act to be performed must be specified in the warrant of the commitment.

Incarceration All No
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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

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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
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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

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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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Vermont Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 13 § 7180(4)(b) Remedies for failure to pay fines, costs, surcharges, and penalties

(4)  Contempt. (A) The court may conclude that the defendant is in contempt if the court finds that: (i) the defendant knew or reasonably should have known that he or she

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owed the amount due; (ii) the defendant had the ability to pay all or any portion of the amount due; and (iii) the defendant failed to pay all or any portion of the amount due.

(B) If the court concludes that the defendant is in contempt, the court may: (i) Order payment of the amount due on a specific date. (ii) Assess an additional penalty not to exceed ten percent of the amount due. (iii) Direct that the matter be reported to one or more designated credit bureaus. The Court Administrator or the Court Administrator's designee is authorized to contract with one or more credit bureaus for the purpose of reporting information about unpaid Judicial Bureau judgments. (iv)  Refer to Small Claims Court for the purpose of issuing writs of attachment for property and trustee process pursuant to 12 V.S.A. § 5534. Filing fees shall be waived in such cases. (v) Sentence the defendant to serve a term of imprisonment on furlough to participate in a program supervised by the Department of Corrections pursuant to 28 V.S.A. § 808(a) that provides reparation to the community in the form of supervised work activities. For each day the defendant participates in supervised work activities, the defendant shall be given credit against the amount owed at the hourly rate for minimum wage. A defendant who is determined by the Department of Corrections to be ineligible for the preapproved furlough supervised work program may be ordered by the court to serve a sentence in a correctional facility, in which event the defendant shall be given credit against the amount owed for every day served at a rate determined by the court.

Incarceration, Increased fine, Property liens, Work program/jail industry program All No
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Vermont Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 28 § 502b(c) Terms and conditions of parole

(c) A person residing in and participating in programs at a treatment center shall abide by the rules and regulations of the center and may be required to pay such

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costs incident to residents as the Commissioner deems appropriate.

Condition or extension of supervision All No