Spotlight Announcement

7/24/2008: Justice Center Launches Web-Based Version of Repaying Debts Report, Works with States to Translate Recommendations into Policy and Practice

The Council of State Governments Justice Center announced today the availability of an online version of the Repaying Debts report.

Repaying Debts is a first-of-its-kind comprehensive guide – originally released as a print document in October 2007 – that offers recommendations on how policymakers can increase financial accountability among people leaving correctional facilities, improve rates of child support collection and victim restitution, and make individuals’ transition from prisons and jails to the community safe and successful. The new online version of Repaying Debts presents the guide in an easy-to-navigate format that allows users to browse the entire report and print sections that interest them.

The original report, and this on line version, were made possible through funding support provided by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

To view the new Repaying Debts online guide, visit: http://tools.reentrypolicy.org/repaying_debts.

The Justice Center is currently working closely with policymakers in two states, Texas and Idaho, to learn how recommendations in the Repaying Debts report can be translated into policy and practice. In partnership with the court administrators in each of these states, and a diverse team of state agency and local government officials, the Justice Center is compiling and reviewing data to determine how various fines, fees, surcharges, restitution, and child support are currently imposed and collected.

Justice Center staff anticipate highlighting the findings from these studies, and reviewing how policymakers in these states used this information to improve policy and practice, in case studies that should be useful to state and local government officials everywhere.

Justice Center staff have also assisted elected officials in Rhode Island interested in the issue of court-imposed fines and fees. At the request of legislative leaders in Rhode Island, Justice Center staff interviewed court and probation personnel, reviewed research, and drafted policy options for legislators seeking to prioritize the compensation of victims and standardize procedures for determining an individual’s ability to pay court-ordered fees. Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed subsequently introduced legislation (Senate Bill No. 2234), which was informed by Justice Center’s research and policy options, during the 2007 legislative session. The bill was passed by the Rhode Island General Assembly on June 20, 2008, and now heads to the Governor’s desk for his signature.

Steve Canterbury, Administrative Director, West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, and a member of the CSG Justice Center Board of Directors, reports that since the release of the Repaying Debts report, the issue of assessing and modifying child support obligations of incarcerated parents has come before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. That court held that a) incarcerated parents can seek to modify their child support orders, b) an incarcerated parent’s former wages cannot be considered income for child support purposes while the parent is in prison or jail, and c) the child support obligation amount should be set in light of that parent’s actual earnings and assets while incarcerated (Adkins v. Adkins, 656 S.E.2d 47 (W.Va. 2007)).

For more information on the Justice Center’s Financial Obligations project, click here or contact Jamie Yoon.