KY’s web of criminal justice fines and fees upends lives, hurts state | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- KyPolicy report documents over 1,000 fines and fees in Kentucky state law.
- $91 million in unpaid court debt traps residents in cycles of jail and poverty.
- Reform calls include data tracking, ability-to-pay laws, and ending jail penalties.
There is so much we don’t know about our government works, whether here in Kentucky or in Washington D.C., and what we find out is often alarming.
That’s true for a new report from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, which has uncovered a truly byzantine web in our criminal justice system that hurts both people in the system and our society at large.
For the first time, the center documented more than 1,000 provisions in Kentucky state law that impose fines and fees through the legal system. But because so many in the system can’t afford them, those fines and fees instead have built up to at least $91 million in outstanding debt.
Those unpaid fees — which could be as small as the court costs on a traffic ticket — often lead to more jail time, upending lives and families.
But even with months of work in this report, we still don’t have the whole picture, because there is no central database or information repository that shows how local systems work with the statewide judicial and criminal systems.
“The report sheds much-needed light on criminal legal system fines and fees as a critical policy issue in need of reform in Kentucky,” said Ashley Spalding, KyPolicy Research Director and report co-author. “A large and growing body of research shows that these fines and fees don’t deter crime and are a small and unreliable source of revenue that is also costly to collect. Yet they are ubiquitous at every stage of the criminal system and have devastating, long-lasting consequences for people who can’t afford to pay them.”
The KyPolicy researchers sent open record requests to each of Kentucky’s 74 full-service jails, in addition to the Department of Corrections and the Finance and Administration Cabinet. Fines and fees varied widely.
People always joke about how police departments make budgets with a lot of traffic stops at the end of the month. But the problem is that fines and fees are a terrible way to make budget because it’s often unclear if they can actually be paid.
Let’s say someone gets that speeding ticket, but can’t afford to pay it, or the $140 in court costs. Then they are put in jail, leaving children and families and jobs behind. That hurts all of us.
“We want to further bring attention to this policy issue and show it’s extremely harmful to Kentuckians who can’t pay the fees, and we know it entraps people in a cycle of debt and incarceration,” Spalding said in an interview.
In past years, there’s been bipartisan agreement on criminal justice systems like voting rights for those who have served their time. But last year’s House Bill 5 created a wave of tougher on crime policies that could exacerbate this problem. In addition, Kentucky’s move to end the income tax could leave local entities with less general fund revenue and more reliant on more haphazard fines and fees.
Policy recommendations include requiring data collection, reporting and transparency for fines and fees; establishing an ability to pay uniform statute across the state; eliminating jail time as punishment for unpaid court debt and a statute of limitations for criminal fines and fees collections.
“We know other states have been collecting data and making reforms, such as Alabama, Arkansas, and Oklahoma,” Spalding said. “We want to highlight how important it is that Kentucky follow suit and that our lawmakers move forward with needed reforms. They would have so many benefits.”
This story was originally published July 10, 2025 at 11:48 AM.
