New report puts outstanding Oregon criminal court sanctions at more than $1 billion

By Shaanth Nanguneri, Oregon Capital Chronicle

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon’s patchwork system for collecting fees, fines and restitution from people facing criminal charges has resulted in more than $1 billion in uncollected debt that has drained revenue from the state and made it harder to pursue rehabilitation efforts, according to a new report.

The Oregon Justice Resource Center, a Portland-based nonprofit that advocates for people in custody, released its findings Wednesday in a 68-page report in collaboration with the Policy Advocacy Clinic at UC Berkeley’s School of Law and the Portland-based legal support group CLEAR clinic. 

Read the report:

“The Price of Justice in Oregon”

Researchers requested data from the Oregon Judicial Department that broke down the status of monetary sanctions for 2016 to 2023, as well as data from local court systems throughout the state. They also surveyed nearly 700 Oregonians, many of whom reported that the debt increased their stress and their ability to access transportation and housing. 

Analysts described the outstanding debt as “resulting in economic hardship, psychological harm and long-term collateral consequences, including prolonged involvement in the criminal legal system and barriers to expungement of criminal records.” Researchers noted that the number of sanctions and dollar amounts imposed have declined in recent years, but that collection rates are consistently below 40%. Most of that debt is now older than 5 years and “effectively uncollectible,” the report says.

“Squeezing blood from a stone is really not an effective way to fund the system,” Gus Patel-Tupper, a clinical supervisor at UC Berkeley’s Policy Advocacy Clinic, told reporters at a Wednesday virtual news conference. “So not only are collections falling in raw terms, but the cost of collections is high, which reduces net revenue even further.”

Sarah Evans, a spokesperson for the Oregon Judicial Department, declined to respond to the report’s findings Wednesday.

“This is a complex issue and we would want more time to read through the report,” she wrote in a statement. 

Criminal justice reform advocates argue that there are solutions for addressing the issue, such as by undoing several mechanisms that allow for significant leeway for judges and prosecutors to impose and seek such sanctions. The state in 2021 eliminated monetary fines and fees in Oregon’s juvenile justice system.

But for adults, Oregon doesn’t have a standardized system across its state court system for imposing and collecting monetary sanctions, which can include costs like fees for public defenders, fines for nonpayment or restitution to victims of a crime. 

In the meantime, more than 60% of Oregon’s financial sanctions in 2023 were concentrated in zip codes “disproportionately home to people of color and families living below the poverty line.” The report pointed to a 2021 study finding that such sanctions were associated with increased rates of future poverty.

“Courts continue to impose monetary sanctions in criminal cases that many Oregonians are unable to pay. The practice of imposing and collecting monetary sanctions has proven ineffective and inequitable,” the report reads. “Monetary sanction debt is a significant threat, causing psychological and financial hardship to families and serving as a barrier to successful reentry for people with criminal records.”

Recommendations for reform

Oregon employs a fine system to serve as an alternative to harsher penalties like incarceration, but fines can also be tacked onto sentences as an additional form of punishment. Although Oregon scales such fines based on a person’s financial status, the report pointed to a 2020 analysis of a similar system in Germany which found that the fines’ effectiveness “greatly depended on how the system was structured and that an ability-to-pay process was not enough to protect low-income people.”

Instead, advocates on Wednesday pushed the state to eventually eliminate all fines and fees in the criminal legal system. They dismissed concerns that such a move would incentivize increased incarceration on the grounds that such a phenomenon hasn’t taken place in the juvenile justice system since it outlawed the practice.

“That said, in an abundance of caution, if fines are eliminated, protection should be implemented to prevent judges from imposing more punitive sanctions because fines are unavailable,” said Zachary Winston, policy director for the Oregon Justice Resource Center.

Other recommendations the report encouraged Oregon to adopt include:

• Replace the current restitution system with a state-funded compensation system to the extent permissible under the Oregon Constitution, which ensures the victim’s right to receive restitution from a convicted criminal who caused loss or injury.
• Automatically discharge any outstanding debt and end wage garnishment, tax refund intercepts and funds for state contracts with debt collection agencies for monetary sanctions.
• Increase access to individual debt waivers while reducing individual instances of judges imposing monetary sanctions. 

Rep. Willy Chotzen, a Portland Democrat who serves as vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee, told reporters Wednesday that he appreciates the report for beginning a conversation around safety, fairness and efficient use of money. Chotzen, a former public defender, said he wasn’t ready to comment on any 2027 legislation responding to the report’s concerns.

Stefani Davis, a paralegal at CLEAR clinic, meanwhile, shared a story of a client who racked up around $30,000 in debt related to court-imposed fees that prevented him from seeking expungement of his criminal record after struggling with addiction and a lack of housing and employment. Her organization worked with him to get the fees waived after making minimal payments.

“Fines and fees are not justice. They don’t make our community safer. They keep people trapped,” Davis said. “Every day I see when we remove these barriers, people don’t fail, they thrive. It’s time to stop punishing poverty.”