The United States formally abolished “debtors’ prisons” — the incarceration of people who fail to pay off debts — nearly two centuries ago. But today in North Carolina, thousands of low-income people are in jail, trapped in a cycle of debt, or both, because they cannot afford the unconstitutional fines and fees that courts order them to pay when convicted of any crime, even as minor as a speeding ticket.
The cost and number of fines and fees have skyrocketed across North Carolina in recent years, thanks to a series of legislative changes enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly and the day-to-day decisions of judges who have too often bent to the legislative desire to turn the judiciary to debt collection.
In courtrooms across the state, there is no consistent standard for when and how fines and fees are imposed, and too many judges do not fulfill their constitutional obligation to inquire about an individual’s financial status before ordering them to pay fines and fees, as required by law. As a result, judges routinely order low-income North Carolinians — a disproportionate number of them people of color — to pay fines and fees that they cannot afford. Failure to pay will result in more fines, fueling a cycle of debt that forces people to forgo the basic necessities of life in order to avoid jail and collateral consequences.
In this racially-skewed, two-tiered system, the rich and the poor can commit the exact same offense, but the poor will receive harsher and longer punishments simply because they are poor. While some actors, from public defenders to state legislators to reform-minded judges, have fought for fairer processes and outcomes, too many North Carolina judges nevertheless routinely violate the rights of low-income people who appear in their courtrooms.
This report examines the history of those court costs, how North Carolina has sought to turn the judiciary from its role as a neutral arbiter of justice toward service as a state debt collector, and how the resulting unjust system criminalizes poverty, violates people’s rights, and preys on many of our state’s most vulnerable residents.
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Tuesday, April 9, 2019 - 4:15pm
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North Carolina Jails People for Being Poor. The Practice Has to End.
Ending Debtors’ Prisons
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The Smart Justice 50-State Blueprints is the first-ever analysis of its kind and will serve as a tool for activists, advocates, and policymakers to push for transformational change to the criminal justice system. They are the result of a multi-year partnership between the ACLU, its state affiliates, and the Urban Institute to develop actionable policy options for each state that capture the nuance of local laws and sentencing practices.
The 51 reports (covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia) provide a snapshot of the tailored, localized approach that states must take to ending mass incarceration.
The reports are all viewable on an interactive website that allows users to visualize the reductions in jail and prison population that would result from the policy decisions that states pursue.
The interactive feature for North Carolina is viewable here: https://50stateblueprint.aclu.org/states/north-carolina
The North Carolina report provides an overview of North Carolina’s incarcerated populations, including an analysis of what drives people into the system, who is being sent to jail and prison and the racial disparities that are present, how long people spend behind bars, and why people are imprisoned for so long.
Our research found that an increase in the average amount of time people spend in prison, particularly for drug offenses, and a decrease in the number of people released from prison every year have kept the state’s prison population near peak levels, despite a reduction in the number of people entering the system in recent years. It also shows that Black men, people over the age of 50, and people with severe mental illness and substance use disorders are massively over-represented in the state’s prison population.
The findings in the North Carolina report cover:
- The growth of North Carolina’s jail and prison population: North Carolina’s prison population, currently more than 37,000, has more than doubled between 1980 and 2016, and it is projected to exceed capacity by 2025. Meanwhile, an estimated 16,871 people were locked up in county jails in 2015, nearly 90 percent of whom had not been convicted of a crime.
- Drivers of mass incarceration: Nearly 1 in 3 people imprisoned in North Carolina was serving time for a drug or property offense as of May 2018.
- Longer prison sentences: In 2015, a person serving time in North Carolina had served an average of 29.4 percent more time than just a decade earlier. The average amount of time served for drug offenses jumped by 63.2 percent during that time period.
- Racial disparities: One in 40 Black men in North Carolina were imprisoned as of 2016. North Carolina’s Black per capita adult imprisonment rate is 4.5 times higher than its white adult per capita imprisonment rate. While Black people accounted for 52.9 percent of the 2016 prison population, they made up only 21.5 percent of the state’s adult population.
- The rapid aging of North Carolina’s prison population: The population of people over age 50 in prison grew by nearly 105 percent between 2006 and 2016. People age 50 and older accounted for nearly one in five people (17.9 percent) imprisoned in 2016, a trend that is at odds with overwhelming evidence that this group poses little risk to public safety and is unlikely to recidivate.
- High rates of mental illness and substance use disorder: 71 percent of screened people who are incarcerated reported having a substance use disorder requiring intermediate or long-term treatment. The state estimates that 25,000 people with severe mental illness end up in North Carolina jails annually.
- The fiscal toll of mass incarceration: North Carolina’s general fund spending on corrections has increased by 254 percent between 1986 and 2016. Imprisoning one person in North Carolina cost an average of $89.30 per day in 2016.
Date
Wednesday, September 5, 2018 - 12:15pm
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Decisions about reproductive health and abortion are deeply personal and private, and are best left to individuals and their doctors. Since its founding, the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina (ACLU-NC) has recognized that personal privacy and reproductive rights are among our most important constitutional rights. So much depends on our ability to decide—free from government interference—whether and when to become a parent. However, all too often discussions about reproductive rights are mired in politics by lawmakers obsessed with interfering in our lives, rather than focusing on rights and health. The ACLU-NC is committed to upholding every individual’s right to reproductive freedom, including the right to access abortion and control their bodily autonomy.
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Wednesday, March 29, 2017 - 11:45am
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