To: San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Stop the Cycle of Court-Ordered Debt
For low-income people, a single encounter with the courts today can result in a sentence to a life-long cycle of debt. The recent statewide Traffic Court Amnesty Program (Amnesty) reduces debt for people whose traffic tickets were issued prior to 2013 and reinstates suspended driver’s licenses for people who enroll in traffic court payment plans. Amnesty is a step in the right direction, but the City and County of San Francisco has the opportunity to go further and truly stop the endless cycle of debt for its low-income residents. To create impactful and lasting debt relief, the City and County, along with other stakeholders, must commit to the following:
1) Fund Amnesty education and outreach in the City’s FY 16-17 and FY 17-18 budget.
• Provide funding to local community-based organizations to assist people in accessing the Amnesty process, with the goal of 100% participation from qualifying San Franciscans.
• Fund additional necessities for participation, such as interpretation/translation services, the $50 Amnesty participation fee, and the $55 DMV license reinstatement fee.
2) Eliminate the use of license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees.
• Establish as local policy that license suspensions are an inappropriate collection tool for infraction-related debt.
• Direct all city agencies to cease reporting non-traffic violations to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
3) Terminate all contracts with private debt collectors and establish a fair and just approach to debt collection for San Francisco.
• End the use of private debt collection for debt owed to the City and County by terminating relationships with Alliance One.
• Build a locally-based public debt-collection system that incorporates core San Francisco values, including transparency, fairness, and inclusiveness.
• In addition, the City and County must urge the San Francisco Superior Court to allow low-income San Franciscans to clear past debt through a debt-relief court calendar and dismiss court-ordered fines and fees for low-income people.
In addition, the City and County must urge, and partner with, the Superior Court to:
4) Allow people to access the courts without regard to income.
• Dismiss all outstanding bench warrants for people appearing voluntarily in court.
• Allow people who failed to appear in court to request relief from any imposed civil assessment (a $300 fee) without having to first pay that assessment as “bail.”
• Allow people who failed to appear in court to schedule new court dates.
5) Provide alternatives to full, lump-sum payment for low-income people.
• Expand access to community service options to include participation in social services and educational or job training programs.
• Increase the value of work credit hours for community service, and allow a reduction in the total amount due relative to any community service completed, even if community service is not completed in full.
• Eliminate fee requirements for participation in the work credit/payment plan program Project 20.
Why is this important?
The traffic court system disproportionately impacts low-income and people of color in San Francisco by creating an endless cycle of court-ordered debt that is difficult to break. Current policy in San Francisco uses driver’s license suspensions as punishment for people who cannot pay exorbitant fines and fees. “Quality of life” citations, such as jaywalking or sleeping in a public place, also lead to bench warrants and driver’s license suspensions. Unpaid fines and fees then get transferred to a private debt collection agency that aggressively pursues any outstanding debt. Due to exorbitant fine amounts and reduced access to courts, driver’s license suspensions create barriers to sustainable employment, harm credit, and keep people in long cycles of poverty that are impossible to overcome. License suspensions and attempts to collect these fines and fees from low-income people have no positive impact on public safety. In reality, these practices undermine public safety by limiting the ability of low-income people to access living wage employment, social services, and pay for essentials such as food, clothing, and shelter.
Debt Free San Francisco is a coalition that includes Community Housing Partnership, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, All of Us or None, and the Coalition on Homelessness San Francisco. We are working to eliminate the impacts of court-ordered debt on our communities, and urge the City and County of San Francisco to end practices that result in crippling debt for its residents.