Pay Up or Go to Jail
by The Editorial Board, The New York Times
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
User fees are a fact of life in America — those inscrutable “administrative” charges tacked on to everything from checking luggage to buying theater tickets to applying for college. For people with the ability to pay, they are an irritation. But such fees are increasingly being levied on people caught up in the criminal justice system, who are overwhelmingly among the poorest members of society.