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While investigating the impact of court fines and fees on Pennsylvania residents, I spent hours in courtrooms and watched dozens of hearings. For six months, I researched and combed through court documents, talked to legal experts and listened to personal stories.
Several people I met in traffic court didn’t understand why I was there. After telling one woman I was a reporter, she scoffed. “Reporting on what?” Another time, a man told me I should be focusing on more serious issues. What’s the big deal about having your driver’s license suspended, anyway?
But for each of these comments, there were many more that conveyed the importance of what I was trying to cover. I heard from numerous other people struggling to pay off their court debt, how their $25 fine would end up costing more than $150 and, overall, how those fines and fees had a deep effect on their livelihoods and access to opportunities.
“I’m just trying to get my life back together,” said one man while we spoke in the courthouse lobby after his hearing. He was there to pay off a DUI charge from 11 years back.
Another woman told me in January that, in budgeting for Christmas, she’d missed her December court payment and had fallen behind on her rent. “This happens every year,” she said.
Those stories, which I started reporting on as a John Jay Justice Reporting Fellow on “Cash Register Justice,” were enough to prove the importance of these issues. But upon publication of the first and second stories, the amount of feedback we received was unexpected — and equally powerful.
I received messages from readers who have been personally impacted by court debt, have a related story idea or simply want to help. One person wrote in from Australia; another told me about a loved one’s struggle with court debt in Colorado. Several tipped us off to other issues court debt poses in the region and have already inspired new investigations.
The array of messages not only shows the scope of the issue, it demonstrates the interest — and need — for in-depth reporting on this issue and others like it.
So thank you for your readership, your support and your thoughtful messages. If you believe in this kind of reporting, please consider supporting PublicSource with a donation today. And please know — if you have a story tip or thought on how we can improve our reporting, I’d love to hear from you.
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