October 7, 2022
The Community Corrections Fines and Fees Project team has released an infographic, titled: “Probation and Parole Officer Beliefs about Fines & Fees in Community Corrections.”
The CCFF team has released an infographic illustrating results from an online survey of probation and parole officers across 6 states. The infographic examines officer beliefs about fines and fees assessed to supervision clients in each jurisdiction surveyed. Included are officer opinions regarding fee amounts, ability to pay practices, payment waivers, and nonpayment responses.
See the infographic in full here.
April 21, 2021
January 26, 2021
Dr. Meghan O’Neil discusses the disproportionate impact fines and fees have on members of racial minority groups as part of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform’s The Poverty Penalty symposium.
August 27, 2020
August 10, 2020
The Community Corrections Fines and Fees Project team has released “Case Studies in Indiana Community Corrections Fines and Fees”
The CCFF team has released a study examining the fines and fees attributed to four similar cases in the same Indiana county. The costs imposed at the time of conviction were comparable in three of the four cases, but the fees imposed during supervision varied more.
See the case comparison in the full report.
September 24, 2019
Two CCFF research partners selected to participate in upcoming Reducing Revocations Challenge initiative
September 12, 2019
Prof. Ebony Ruhland speaks on Harvard Law panel focused on fines and fees research
July 15, 2019
The Community Corrections Fines and Fees Study (CCFF) launched one year ago this month. It’s been a busy year! Here’s a (brief) timeline of what we have been up to:
• September 2018: By this point, the majority of our 39 study sites were selected. PIs began working with practitioners from each site to negotiate data acquisition contracts or letters of support for administrative data collection.
• October 2018: We finalized our study codebook, which outlines the topics and information we hope to collect from each agency participating in our project. This was a huge step forward and allowed us to begin data acquisition discussions with staff from each study site.
• November 2018: Several team members attended the American Society of Criminology meeting in Atlanta, GA, where a CCFF meeting was held over lunch to discuss our progress and next steps. A presentation was also given about the project to the University of Cincinnati Sentencing Research Group.
• December 2018: Preliminary drafts of all study policies, protocols, and plans were submitted to our funder, Arnold Ventures. Details about each participating study site were also submitted, along with our first progress report. This information was reviewed to determine if the project could move forward with data collection.
• January 2019: We received approval for the project to continue from Arnold Ventures. Formal discussions began regarding data collection and extraction protocols with participating study sites. The sampling plan for our online survey with probation and parole officers was also completed.
• February 2019: IRB approval for the administrative data collection phase was obtained from nearly all universities participating in the study. This allowed CCFF staff to move forward with data collection, therefore data extraction processes began with participating study sites.
• March 2019: University of Cincinnati staff gave a poster presentation about the CCFF Project at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD.
• April 2019: By this point data collection of agency records had begun for almost every study site. We also updated and re-finalized the sampling and analysis plan for the administrative data collection phase of the study.
• May 2019: Data collection began for a sub-division of the CCFF study, CCFF-Policy Review. This project involves examining statutes and policies governing the collection and administration of fines and fees for all states and agencies participating in our study. We hope that this effort will help us shed light on the current laws and policies affecting fines and fee practices throughout the United States.
• June 2019: Our online survey was finalized and piloted with several former probation and parole officers. This proved to be a rich source of feedback, and we began addressing all edits and suggestions received.
• July 2019: All co-PIs and several project staff met in Cincinnati, OH, for a two-day conference. During this time, we began planning for our qualitative data collection phase, which includes interviews of probationers/parolees and their families.
January 22, 2019
Prof. Nathan Link discusses the impact of fines, fees, and back-end sentencing
December 13, 2018
Dr. Meghan O’Neil discusses her work on the Community Corrections Fines and Fees Project
As part of The Learning Community on Poverty and Inequality Speaker Series (University of Michigan, School of Social Work), Dr. O’Neil explains how she studies how our most vulnerable citizens interact with the judicial system to understand how excessive court-mandated costs can spur deleterious consequences such as homelessness, bankruptcy, criminal activity, and victimization.
Slides from her presentation can be found here.
September 26, 2018
Dr. Meghan O’Neil interviewed by Detroit Legal News
September 21, 2018
Prof. Ebony Ruhland interviewed about the Community Corrections Fines Project
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