News from the States: Panel reviewing how Louisiana courts are funded needs more time for recommendations

Courts & Justice | Feb 01, 2022 | 8:36 pm ET | By Wes Muller

A legislative commission studying ways to fund Louisiana’s criminal justice system without burdening defendants with fees and fines postponed its approval of a report that leaves a crucial item unaddressed.

On Friday commission members received a 21-page draft report compiled by staff and had hoped to review and vote on its recommendations Monday. Some members wanted additional time to review the details and noted that the report did not include any exhibits. 

House Speaker Pro Tempore Tanner Magee, R-Houma, who chairs the commission, postponed the vote to next Monday, allowing the members more time to review the report and make any necessary additions or changes. 

In 2017, the Louisiana Legislature adopted Act 260 to reduce financial barriers offenders face when they reenter society. Lawmakers created the Commission on Justice System Funding in 2019 and tasked it with providing recommendations on how to sustainably fund the criminal justice system. Since then, the commission’s scope of study has been expanded to include all state courts.  

The report highlights crucial findings that Louisiana’s court system runs on money collected largely from defendants, most of whom cannot afford the financial penalties the court enforces. 

“Poor and low-income residents who can least afford to pay, the majority of whom are Black, are paying for the criminal justice system to operate,” the report states. “In 2017, Black families paid nearly 88% of bail bond fees and nearly 70% of conviction fees in New Orleans.” 

Advocates for the incarcerated say the report fails to address a key issue the commission is expected to tackle. 

“Look at the very last line of this report,” commission member Will Harrell, an attorney with the New Orleans-based Voice of the Experienced, said at Monday’s meeting. “How are we going to face the public when they read: ‘The Commission did not propose statutory safeguards that ensure adequate court funding and limit the use of self-generated revenue to fund essential court functions.’”

Magee said he hopes by next week the commission can add a way to impose a moratorium on new and increased fines and fees. 

Peter Robins-Brown, policy director of Louisiana Progress, suggested the commission recommend legislation to outlaw debt incarceration — the practice of keeping someone in jail because they cannot pay their court costs. Commission member Judge Stephen Enright Jr. of the 24th Judicial District Court in Jefferson Parish pushed back against that idea, saying courts have already outlawed debtors’ prisons. Robins-Brown said he has seen the practice occur recently in Louisiana.