Fees are the crack cocaine for businesses & governments today. Can’t raise prices due to competition? Just add a myriad of fees and call it “consumer choice”. Can’t raise taxes? Charge fees for services that were once funded by taxpayer dollars. Courts are backlogged but the legislature won’t increase funding for public defenders? Charge indigent defendants attorney fees whether they win or lose their case.
It’s insidious and a hidden form of taxation that everyone pays for but has no recourse against. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and this crap needs to constantly be exposed.
NPR is running a series this week on the vicious cycle caused by fees in our justice system. Of course most of these people are a) poor, b) minorities, and c) criminals so nobody gives two shits about holding their heads underwater.
http://www.npr.org/2014/05/19/312158516/increasing-court-fees-punish-the-poor
