A justice system that traps people in poverty, destroys families, and burns through taxpayer dollars while failing to improve public safety is not conservative—it’s counterproductive.
Joey Comley, Kentucky director of Right On Crime.
Imagine this: A young father in rural Kentucky, working two part-time jobs, gets a traffic ticket for expired vehicle registration. He can’t pay the fine in full, so he’s assessed additional court fees, late penalties, and collection surcharges. He misses one hearing because his shift at the factory runs long, and a warrant is issued for failure to appear.
Before he knows it, a $75 ticket spirals into thousands of dollars in court debt that he and his family can’t escape. What happens next? He loses his job. Then his license. Ultimately, he loses his freedom. Behind bars in the county jail, his stay is logged at $47 per day — on the taxpayer’s dime — and wipes away his debt at $50 per day, relieving him of any real obligation to repay.
This isn’t a rare story. It’s business as usual in Kentucky’s criminal fines and fees system — and it’s not a conservative solution for public safety.
Kentucky’s fines and fees model may sound like personal accountability on paper. In practice, however, it’s a government bureaucracy that punishes poverty, creates endless red tape and costs taxpayers more to enforce than it collects.
Kentucky spends more than the IRS does collecting fines and fees
In a new report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, it’s estimated that our state spends more than 40 cents to collect every dollar in fines and fees — an administrative burden that should make every fiscal conservative cringe.
Compare that to the IRS, which spends just 34 cents for every $100 it collects. That’s not a typo. While our commonwealth is responsibly charting the course to zero individual income tax, it cannot keep wasting money trying to extract payment from people who simply don’t have it.
Some might argue taxes are more certain than court debt, and that’s true. But while the IRS uses audits and letters, Kentucky uses incarceration. And unlike the IRS — which rarely cancels debt — the court system cancels debt for jail stays and doesn’t even maintain a centralized database to track how much is owed, to whom, or how effectively it’s collected.
There will never be a problem in a system that doesn’t have to report the details of its operations — but I don’t know a lawmaker who would read this report and say, “Yes, this is an effective means of ensuring personal responsibility and the best way to treat our most impoverished Kentuckians.”
Let’s talk about the cost of criminalizing court debt. When we jail people for failing to pay fines and fees, we’re not just wasting tax dollars — we’re sanctioning what amounts to a modern-day debtor’s prison, something the 14th Amendment was supposed to abolish nearly two centuries ago.
Our current system cancels a Kentucky offender’s debt at $50 a day, rewarding nonpayment with incarceration, while charging the law-abiding taxpayer $47 a day to house each offender.
Meanwhile, second-order damage to families, employers and communities who depend on the incarcerated Kentuckian is ignored, while for-profit corporations rake in money from behind bars — charging $8.25 for a hairbrush that costs $1.25 at Dollar Tree and nearly $43 for a bra you could buy for $8 on Amazon.
Public pain becomes private profit, and counties become financially dependent on a broken system. That’s why some jails and local governments are resistant to change — they’ve come to rely on the fees and reimbursements tied to incarceration.
But if the only way to keep a budget afloat is to jail the poor and churn court debt, then the budget is the problem —not the people.
Kentuckians should be held accountable and treated fairly
No one is suggesting that breaking the law should have no consequences. Every offender must be held accountable. But punishments should fit the crime, and a person’s capacity to pay associated fines and fees must be considered.
A justice system that traps people in poverty, destroys families and burns through taxpayer dollars while failing to improve public safety is not conservative—it’s counterproductive.
None of us wants to coddle lawbreakers, but lawmakers must recognize that Kentucky’s fines and fees system is broken. We need a smarter, leaner system — one that reports everything accurately and consistently.
A conservative solution protects Kentucky taxpayers, upholds individual responsibility, and ensures the punishment fits the crime.