AB 320/SB 333: Increasing Court Fees and Surcharges

This bill would increase statutorily set court fees and surcharges, including indexing some fees and surcharge amounts to inflation.

While “fines and fees” are often spoken of in conjunction with one another, they are separate and distinct. Fines are ostensibly imposed as a punishment for violating the law, while fees exist solely to generate revenue.
Over the past three decades, the number and amount of fees and surcharges imposed by the criminal legal system has grown exponentially, as states and local governments have chosen to become reliant on them to fund growing systems of policing, surveillance, and incarceration.

Fees exist at every stage of the justice system—booking fees, pretrial supervision fees, diversion program fees, “pay-to-stay” fees, fees for medical care, phone calls and more during incarceration, supervision fees, among countless others.
Almost everyone contacting the system is required to pay fees, from people cited for a minor traffic violation or charged with low-level misdemeanor, to those charged with more serious felonies — who typically spend years in prison without the ability to earn a living, only to reenter their communities trapped in insurmountable debt.