Experts tell House committees juvenile fees and fines harm youth and produce minimal county revenue
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Summary
At a joint hearing on House Bill 1385, researchers and clinicians urged eliminating most juvenile fees and fines, saying such sanctions deepen poverty, prolong supervision and correlate with higher recidivism while counties collect little revenue from them.
Lawmakers heard layered testimony urging repeal of most juvenile court fees and fines under House Bill 1385, with advocates presenting statewide data, county fiscal analysis and client examples showing harms and limited fiscal benefit.
Nadia Mezafer, senior attorney at Juvenile Law Center, summarized new research (Heavy Burdens) showing that fees and fines place burdens on youth and families, prolong system involvement and generate negligible county revenue. Mezafer told the committee that counties collected, on average, only 58% of 2023 assessments by August 2024 and that fees and fines composed less than 1% of total county revenue in 2022. “When youth cannot pay, the impact is very devastating,” she said, describing debt, civil judgments and extended supervision.
Clinical perspective: Lisonbee Ware, an associate director of clinical programs, offered case examples from Allegheny County in which young children were assessed costs and families sacrificed necessities to pay court bills. Ware said she had seen 10‑year‑olds assessed court costs and recounted clients who remained on probation months longer because outstanding fees were their only unmet obligation.
Research on outcomes: Mezafer and Ware cited studies linking monetary sanctions to increased youth recidivism, including a 2017 study in Allegheny County and a 2023 Florida analysis showing youth who owed fines and fees had higher reoffending rates.
Policy implications: Witnesses argued that fees and fines are poor accountability mechanisms because they do not meaningfully repair harm, disproportionately harm low‑income youth, and divert limited resources toward collection. The Juvenile Law Center urged Pennsylvania to join other states that have reformed juvenile monetary sanctions and to pass HB1385, which would prohibit most juvenile system fees and fines while preserving narrowly defined victim compensation and restitution practices.
Committee action: The hearing was informational; no vote was taken on HB1385. Members asked for additional county‑level fiscal breakdowns and examples of alternative accountability practices such as restorative conferencing and community‑based reparative service.
