If you ever go to court (and let’s hope you don’t) you’ll likely find that part of the reason court is so expensive are the fees and fines that you’re required to pay. Fines are essentially monetary punishments for breaking the law and fees are costs for using the courts. A criminal case in North Carolina will cost you at the very least $178 in fees and fines. That’s the bare minimum for using the courts and more fees are added depending on the circumstances. The end result of these additional fees can be a court debt above $1,000, which is … well, it’s a lot.

But, some people just can’t pay these fees and fines. Research by the North Carolina Poverty Research Fund outlines the process in the case that the defendant is unable to pay the required costs by the required date. First, the courts increase the cost of the fees with a late fee. This makes it even harder for the defendant to pay off the debt. After that, often times in North Carolina they’ll revoke the defendant’s driver’s license, which can easily result in the loss of a job or inability to secure one.

Finally, if the defendant still can’t pay the costs, the courts will even go as far as to sentence the defendant to jail time. That’s right, jail time. Jail time which can destroy families, relationships and contracts. Jail time that’s served not because of the actual crime committed, but just because the defendant was too poor to be able to pay.

In short, the punishments for the inability to pay the cost of court easily destroy the foundations of living for a low class defendant. Furthermore, when considering the fact that the rates of crime are higher in poverty stricken areas, it’s clear to see how these fees and fines heavily disfavor those who are poor. It’s for this reason that they are unconstitutional, immoral and unnecessary. Fines and fees should be decreased and abolished respectively. 

The constitutionality of these costs can be compared to that of the Supreme Court landmark caseGideon v. Wainwright, which confirmed the right to a public defender under the Sixth Amendment and equal protection of the law under the 14th Amendment.  

In the final opinion of the court, Justice Black wrote the majority opinion: “the noble idea” of “fair trials before impartial tribunals in which every defendant stands equal before the law… cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.”

The court’s argument relies on the 14th Amendment, which states that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Black argues that in this case there was unequal protection based on wealth and class, which inhibited the “noble idea” of fair trials.

This same logic of Justice Black can be applied to the fines and fees of North Carolina’s judiciary. Fines and fees are laws, laws which do not equally protect the citizens of the state of North Carolina. Therefore, under the 14th Amendment and backed by the precedent of the Supreme Court’s Gideon vs Wainwright decision, these laws are ultimately unconstitutional on the grounds that they do not equally protect lower income defendants. In fact these laws actively work against lower class individuals rather than provide any “protection” at all.

In the last 20 years the cost of fees in North Carolina has risen 400 percent, almost a third of defendants are unemployed before their arrest, 36 percent of people entering prison have been homeless at some point and 60 percent reported less than $1000 per month in income (per the North Carolina Poverty Research Fund).

College students aren’t immune to poverty either. According to Talk Poverty, 14 percent of community college students are homeless and data suggests that food insecurity affects one in two students nationwide. Nor are they immune to criminal charges: college students regularly face drug possession, driving violations and disorderly conduct charges, and in 2015 the NC State University Police Department had 262 arrests.

Just last month, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law that made it even harder for judges to waive those fees if they feel the defendant was too poor to pay them (something that previously only happened 8 percent of the time anyway).

If you needed proof that the General Assembly is actively working against the less fortunate, this is it. Fines, fees and the laws of North Carolina regarding them are clearly unconstitutional, they are certainly immoral and beyond that they’re actually unnecessary.

Court is a basic function of government. It should therefore be funded by tax dollars to ensure that it acts in a fair and just way rather than disproportionately preying on those living in poverty. We need to encourage the North Carolina General Assembly to act in the public’s favor by reducing court fines, abolishing court fees and using tax dollars to fund the courts in order to create a more fair judicial system.