When Breece Phipps finished serving time at the Sacramento County Jail, he encountered something he wasn’t expecting — he owed thousands of dollars in fees for having a probation officer.
Phipps said it made no sense. After doing a year-long stint for house burglary in 2009, Phipps was given 5 years of probation. But during that time, he landed back in jail. And since he was in jail, he didn’t have a probation officer. He said it came down to an administrative mistake.
“I was told I was supposed to have notified my probation officer as I was on my way to the jail,” Phipps said.
Phipps is not alone. Exorbitant amounts of fines and fees — from incarceration to parking enforcement to business costs — for years have negatively impacted people of color and low-income residents, often putting unnecessary roadblocks in the path out of the carceral system or of building a business.
The city and county of Sacramento are now reviewing those types of fees. Recently, they began participating in an initiative called Cities and Counties for Fine and Fee Justice, which is run by nonprofit PolicyLink. The initiative helps local governments reduce the burden of fines and fees felt disproportionately by low- income communities and people of color, and create alternatives to charging these fees.
Sacramento officials will be soliciting feedback from residents about what fees and fines are most damaging to low-income residents in the next few weeks. The next scheduled community meeting is Saturday, April 17.
Up first: parking tickets and towing fees, followed by incarceration fees similar to those Phipps had to pay.
Incarceration fees are under consideration because people of color — and particularly Black people — are overrepresented in the nation’s carceral system. Black people make up 28% of California’s prison population, but only 6% of the state’s general population. That change would need to come through the county, which handles jail fees.
A 2019 report by New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice found that prison fees and fines unfairly burdened people most likely to already be in debt, and they aren’t an effective way for cities to raise revenue. Carceral fees in particular disproportionately impact people of color compared to white people.
When Phipps was finally released, he said he had $3,000 racked up in bills for this probation officer and no way to pay it. He called around but was told the charge couldn’t be removed.
“Nobody could do anything, so I just paid for it, because I didn’t want to go delinquent,” Phipps said.
It took him 7 years to pay off this debt. He just made his final payment last month.
‘High-pain, low-gain’ fees
The city and county of San Francisco were one of the first governments to work with PolicyLink to lessen the impact of fines and fees on disadvantaged communities.
Anne Stuhldreher, director of Financial Justice for the city and county of San Francisco, says her office often found that traffic fines like towing fees had ripple effects.
“It costs several hundred dollars when you get your car towed,” Stuhldreher said. “A lot of folks can’t afford to pay to get their car out, and it really creates barriers for them — not being able to get to work, not being able to get their kids to school.”
She added that those fees end up hurting low-income people more — often digging them deeper into poverty.
“We like to refer to those fees as high-pain, low-gain,” she explained. ‘High-pain for people in the community, and low-gain for us,” she said.
San Francisco has led the way in reassessing fees and fine pay structures. In 2017, the city created a repayment plan for traffic fines based off of income level, and there are fee waivers for people who meet a certain income threshold.
Sacramento could do the same.
“If we’re trying to help people to build financial health, and then on the other side there are all these fines and fees that are stripping wealth, people are not going to be able to get ahead,” Amy Williamson with Sacramento’s Financial Empowerment Center said.
Sacramento Councilmember Jay Schenirer, who is helping to lead local efforts with PolicyLink, said he hopes the city can find a compromise in restructuring some fees.
“I don’t think it’s that large of a source of revenue, and as we move forward we’ll look at the potential loss that we have,” Schenirer said. “In many of these things, the city’s portion is actually very small when you think about what the courts take, or others.”
According to the City Manager’s Office, fees and fines make up a small portion of the city’s overall budget, though they did not specify how much.
Schenirer added that he’d like for the city to find a better solution to balance its budget, as well as discourage residents from doing certain things like running red lights or illegally parking.
“A knee-jerk reaction for policymakers has long been ‘Well, let’s impose a fine or a larger fine,’” Schenirer said. “That’s an easy solution that certainly may not be the best solution and only increases the problems that individuals have.”
A driver of inequity
Fees don’t just impact those who interact with the jail system.
When Sajad Shakoor opened Falafel Corner in Natomas in 2016, he was prepared to pay for startup costs like buying a space and getting a business license.
Sajad Shakoor, owner of Falafel Corner, outside of its first location in Natomas, March 16, 2021.Andrew Nixon / CapRadioBut he wasn’t prepared for so many municipal fees, which he said racked up to thousands of dollars for different city departments.
“I had a budget that I thought I was going to — this is what it would take to open a restaurant, but it was just crazy how expensive it was,“ Shakoor said. “On their fee schedule, whether it’s your first store or if it’s your 50th store, you’re going to get the same fees.”
Shakoor’s restaurant is no exception. He said he believes these fees are creating a barrier to entry for small business owners, many of whom tend to be people of color.
“It keeps out mom and pops, it keeps out demographics that already don’t have the wherewithal to open this business. It’s a stumbling block,” Shakoor said of the fees he encountered.
Lynette Hall, the city’s community engagement director, said Sacramento is looking to create more equity in the fees and fines system.
“What we don’t want to happen is for budgets to be balanced on low-income and people of color,” Hall said. “These financial penalties can make government really a driver of inequity.”
For Breece Phipps, now that he’s paid off his debt, he’s in school studying to get a masters in astronautical engineering at the University of Southern California. He hopes to become an astronaut.
“I’m big on changing the system,” Phipps said. “This is a blocker to people who actually try to change their life.”
But in order to do that, he said he has to get his record expunged — something that comes with more fees.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated which level of government handles incarceration fees. The county handles the jail system, so they will be looking at these fees, not the city.
