January 6, 2022

Dear Members of the New York Senate:

We are writing to express our support of your efforts to end the criminalization of poverty through legislation such as the End Predatory Court Fees Act (“The Act”) (S3979) and encourage passage this year.

CEO Action for Racial Equity is a Fellowship of over 100 signatory organizations that mobilizes a community of business leaders with diverse expertise across multiple industries and geographies to advance public policy in four key areas — healthcare, education, economic empowerment and public safety. Its mission is to identify, develop and promote scalable and sustainable public policies and corporate engagement strategies that will address systemic racism, social injustice and improve societal well-being.

Many elements of The Act align with our mission and, more specifically, one of our policy solutions – Decriminalizing Poverty.  Further, as we identify such policies, we are guided by a set of nonpartisan principles:

• The inability to pay fines and fees should never be the reason for added punishment.
• The justice system should not disproportionately harm the poor.
• All individuals deserve to be treated justly without bias or prejudice by our legal and law enforcement systems.

Simply, this means confronting the aspects of our justice system that hurt low-income and working-class communities, not because they have committed a crime, but because they lack the means to afford judicial costs.

For example, New York’s “mandatory surcharge” is a fee attached to every conviction in New York, even traffic tickets. Courts must impose these surcharges by law and do not have the authority to waive or reduce these charges — or consider one’s ability to pay.

• For the millions of New Yorkers living paycheck-to-paycheck, paying just one traffic ticket and its mandatory surcharge could mean missing rent, going without healthcare, or living without basic necessities.
• If a person cannot afford to pay the mandatory surcharge — which can be hundreds of dollars — they can face bench warrants, arrest, incarceration, driver’s license suspension and civil judgments.

Furthermore, fees are often an inefficient and unreliable source of government revenue as evidenced by New York’s collection statistics.  For example, in 2019, New York City’s criminal courts imposed over $10 million in surcharges, but collected just over $3 million.  In addition, New York City Supreme Courts imposed nearly $4 million and collected only about $611,000[1].  These low collection levels suggest that fees are not a viable revenue source and, in many cases, cost more to collect than the fees themselves.

As business leaders, we have seen how our businesses prosper when communities thrive. But most importantly, as business leaders we have a responsibility to our employees and customers to help make sure that they live and work in safe, economically strong, and healthy communities.

CEO Action for Racial Equity is committed to working with lawmakers across the aisle to enact policies that bring equity to our justice system. Thank you for your leadership and continued advancement of these reforms. 

Sincerely,

CEO Action for Racial Equity

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CC:
Hon. Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Hon. Crystal Peoples-Stokes
Hon. Robert Ortt
Hon. William Barclay

[1] New York’s Ferguson Problem, NoPriceonJustice.org