The Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) formed the National Task Force on Fines, Fees and Bail Practices early this year to address the ongoing impact of court fines, fees and bail pretrial practices on communities across the United States.
The Task Force will address the impact of these practices on communities, especially the economically disadvantaged, across the United States. It will identify solutions, recommend statutory revisions, and suggest updating court rules in order to face the challenges presented by certain practices in municipal and state courts.
Three working groups were formed on the following topics and a steering committee was created to focus on Best Practices in these areas:
- Access to Justice and Fairness;
- Transparency, Governance & Structural Reform; and
- Accountability, Judicial Performance and Qualifications, and Oversight.
The Task Force will:
- draft model statutes, court rules, written policies, processes, and procedures for setting, collecting, and waiving court-imposed payments;
- compile and create suggested best practices for setting, processing, and codifying the collection of fines and fees and bail/bonds;
- review and revise suggested guidelines for selection, tenure, and oversight of judges in municipal courts, traffic courts, and similar judicial or quasi-judicial bodies;
- review and update state codes of judicial conduct and the jurisdiction of judicial conduct commissions to ensure their applicability to all judges;
- sponsor a court “hackathon” designed to develop innovative technological solutions that ensure courts are providing 21st century customer service through software platforms and mobile applications; and
- develop an online clearinghouse of information containing resources and best practices.
The kickoff meeting was convened in mid-March. Indiana has its own evidence-based pretrial release pilot project, which is described in a companion article in this issue.