Colorado generated more than $132.8 million from fines and fees paid by criminal defendants and those in civil litigation last year.

“Fees and surcharges may substantially increase a defendant’s court-ordered debt,” described an Oct. 9 memo from Legislative Council Staff that outlined the various costs imposed on those in the criminal justice system.

“I do anticipate that there will be legislation in the upcoming legislative session related to fines and fees,” said Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver.

The report provided the example of a Level-4 drug felony for which a judge might order a convicted felon to pay $1,000. However, the inclusion of mandatory drug offender surcharges, a public defender fee and a docket fee could push the total amount due to approximately 2½ times the original fine.

Other examples of offender payments include a $50 monthly probation supervision fee, electronic monitoring or urinalysis testing payments, and a web-based parole supervision charge of $10 per month. While incarcerated, the law authorizes inmates to pay up to $30 for a jail booking fee and $3 for a medical co-pay for using prison health services.

“I think what the report shows is how reliant we are on fines and fees, so we can’t just pull the rug out in our budget,” Herod added. “But what we can do is limit its use and be very specific where we believe it will have the public safety effect that we want it to have.”

Last year the largest depository of justice system fees was the Judicial Stabilization cash fund, which supports court operating costs, judgeships and record sealing. Nearly $32 million went into that fund from civil docket fees and other court charges. The $50 monthly probation fee raised $19.1 million for probation and drug courts.

Nearly $600,000 was steered from appellate court filing fees and copier charges to the Supreme Court Library, and criminal and traffic court fees paid to support the volunteer commissions that evaluate judges’ performance, for a total of $511,589.

The state’s general fund receives 9% of all such fines and fees, but that amount was not documented in the Legislative Council staff memo.

Those familiar with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals expressed dismay at the level of funding the state extracts from those caught up in the civil or criminal justice system.

“Having worked as a paralegal in a criminal defense firm for several years, I can attest that court fines and fees can be overwhelming for a defendant who is, quite literally, paying for their past mistakes,” said Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver. “However, yet another unfortunate consequence of TABOR is that our justice system is increasingly reliant on fines and fees.”

Her reference was to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, the nearly 30-year-old constitutional amendment that limits state revenue. The Office of the State Controller calculated that since the early 1990s, fees and other income not subject to a vote of the people have taken up a larger share of state revenue.

In an analysis from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, spending on the criminal justice system in the U.S. grew 418% between 1982 and 2003. The Brookings Institution reported that in 1991, one-quarter of inmates incurred a financial penalty, but by 2004 66% did. Court-related fees have been a key component of the burden on defendants: like Colorado, a majority of states allow charges for public defenders and parole supervision. Some states even charge for English interpretation.

Homeward Alliance, a Fort Collins-based nonprofit that provides homelessness reduction services, has a program to help those on parole find housing. David Rout, the executive director, noted that any flat fees or fines are regressive, with a higher impact on poorer defendants and litigants.

“Re-Entry clients are either homeless or at severe risk of homelessness when they are released from prison, and fines (or ongoing payments that they have to make as a result of their crimes) are often significant barriers to achieving self-sufficiency,” he said. “It is practically impossible for someone in our program to emerge from prison and immediately be self-sufficient — ongoing fines are another barrier.”

Some legislation has reformed the fine and fee structure within the past decade: a pair of laws in 2014 adjusted penalties for certain crimes based on the value of the items stolen, and outlawed incarceration for people too poor to pay court charges. A 2016 bill halted automatic arrest warrants for those who did not pay court debt on time. (Monetary penalties still exist for late payments.)

Judges have discretion on most, but not all, charges to waive or reduce the fees if a defendant is indigent. Unless the victim and prosecutor agree, there may not be a reduction in any restitution ordered. The state court system as a whole generated $216.2 million in fiscal year 2018-2019, including $35.6 million related to restitution.

Herod believed that restitution to victims should be the first priority for financial obligations before payment to the government, but “that’s not what our system is now doing.”

While the memo did not describe the hardships encountered when the state suspends an individual’s driver’s license, The Denver Post reported that at least 309,000 restraints, as they are known, occurred in each of the last three years. Some reasons for restraint included transgressions unrelated to motor vehicles, like owing child support.

“We have tried to push legislation on that front but that has been stopped because of the financial/revenue loss to DMV and Judicial [Department],” said Denise Maes, executive director of the ACLU of Colorado.

Gonzales said that the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice’s Sentencing Reform Task Force, of which she is a member, may discuss fines and fees as part of their policy recommendations. She believed the November election results and the state’s budgetary outlook will inform the task force’s work.

“Regardless, I strongly believe that we should never balance our budget on the backs of poor people, and that is especially true for Coloradans navigating the justice system,” Gonzales continued.