Written by William Tarter, Jr. and Heather Paramore, Office of Civic Engagement
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Imagine you’re an independent contractor. After baking in the hot sun, building a fence, you realize that you made an honest mistake and the fence you built ended up two feet over the property line. You get cited for a permit violation. As you stand in front of the judge, hoping your work boots don’t track mud on the marble floors, the judge looks you up in the system. That’s when the energy shifts, and the judge delivers the news. You have an active bench warrant for driving under a suspended license years ago. Unbeknownst to you, unpaid fines, court costs, and accrued interest accumulated to the tune of $8,000. As you recover from the initial shock, you try to explain that you just got out of prison and started working. You offer to get on a payment plan. Instead, the judge remands you to forty-five days in jail. When you entered the courtroom, you expected to walk out with a fine and to be back on the job by lunch. Now you’re sitting in a jail cell, wondering what you’re going to tell your son and your client.
On Friday, April 24, 2026, over two dozen advocates gathered at the Glenville Branch of the Cleveland Public Library for the Fines and Fees Summit, a day of collective education about the issue of fines and fees. Moderated by the Director of the Office of Civic Engagement, William Tarter, Jr., the event opened with a series of skits from Alex Harper from Oriana House and Mike Jones from North East Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH), including the above scenario, where was meant to demonstrate how a mistake made years ago can still impact someone’s life years later.
Events such as the Fines and Fees Summit double as both an opportunity to hear the stories about how fines and fees impact returning citizens, but also as an opportunity to learn about the various nuances which impact how the issue is navigated. For example, Destiny Carter, a national subject matter expert from The Fines and Fees Justice Center (FFJC), based in Baltimore, Maryland. provided a helpful explainer on the difference between a fine and a fee, as well as the various types of fees in the criminal legal system. Ms. Carter provided a national perspective and provided examples of how much of an impact fines and fees can have. But she also shared how concrete examples of policy change can be made right here in Cleveland. For example, there are still advocacy efforts to the City of Cleveland to eliminate outstanding debt from traffic cameras, which were outlawed in 2014. What kind of impact would that have if those debts were eliminated?
For many of our justice-impacted neighbors, these lingering court fines and fees continue to haunt them long after their initial violation. Every day, people are forced to make hard choices—do I pay my rent, buy groceries, or do I pay off my court debt? Despite their best efforts, they become trapped in a vicious cycle of accruing penalties until, like the independent contractor, they end up back behind bars. These “hidden costs” create enormously high barriers to employment and housing, stalling reentry and weakening our entire community. They also disproportionately impact communities of color, deepening already damaging racial disparities, erecting barriers to opportunity, and undermining the financial health, wealth, and security of our communities, according to As an example, reporting from FFJC indicates that local and state courts imposed nearly $14 billion in fines and fees on individuals involved with the legal system over a five-year period, with a median amount imposed per person being $2,984.[i]
One of the most important parts of the event was not just about the impact on the daily life from fines and fees, but also the public policy decisions and systems that have put these fines into place, and what needs to be done to change them. Ashley Braxton and Bree Easterling from Policy Matters Ohio provided an overview of the state, county, and municipal budget processes and timelines, exploring how the budget process can inform the overall system in which fines and fees intersect. The truth is that fines and fees can sometimes be a source of revenue that helps to fund other aspects of government services, so it is critical to understand not just the human level of impact of fines and fees, but how sometimes there is a fiscal and economic rationale that is used to keep them in place.
Advocacy to reduce the impact of fines and fees is through legislative advocacy. One example of successful public policy change that led to tangible results was the passage of Ohio House Bill 29. House Bill 29, eliminated the immediate driver’s license suspension for failure to pay a court fine or fee, according to the Legislative Service Commission. House Bill 29 was the result of years of advocacy from advocates across the region and across the state. Michael S. Russell from The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and Zack Eckles from the Ohio Poverty Law Center shared lessons learned from the passage of Ohio House Bill 29 and the journey to get it across the finish line. The passage of the bill rested on a combination of data collected across the State of Ohio, detailed research and analysis, a report of the findings, community engagement, and stories, which culminated in strong bipartisan support.
The event concluded with remarks from Nailah Byrd, who currently serves as the Clerk of Court for Cuyahoga County, and how the office of the Clerk of Court puts policy into administration.
Fines and fees are a subject that does not receive the level of attention and awareness that it needs. Those who are passionate about wanting to see systemic reform in the criminal legal system must add their voices to the call for policy change at the local and state level that can reduce the impact of fines and fees on the quality of life of our fellow citizens. That journey starts with community understanding. This summit was the first, but not the last, in a line of steps that we are taking to increase community understanding about this important policy issue. LMM was founded with the belief that faith-based organizations can and should play a leading role in advancing the cause of healing, restoration, and justice. We encourage you to read more about this subject in the community partner links below, and support LMM to ensure that we can continue the fight towards removing barriers to second chances and advancing the work of restorative justice.
Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
[i] https://finesandfeesjusticecenter.org/2025/07/24/reforming-the-revenue-machine-part-1/
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[1] https://finesandfeesjusticecenter.org/2025/07/24/reforming-the-revenue-machine-part-1/
