\u00a0Funding the Courts from Those Who Can Least Afford It<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n I just read this shocking story from the Brennan Center, the superlative justice think tank and legal clinic based at NYU. Boy am I naive! I had no idea about the kind of rabid injustice\u00a0\u2014 meanness, really\u00a0\u2014 that is still … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/sites\/default\/files\/newsletter\/images\/small_82741547%20%281%29.jpg\")
<\/a>The state of Alabama is now in a situation common among states that fund part of their court system through fees on litigants. Alabama is one of 13 states that expect indigent defendants to pay some or all of the costs of their defense counsel. The Anniston Star<\/a> reports that Alabama collected only $4 million from indigent defendants in 2012 – \u201conly a fraction\u201d of the legal fees and other court costs charged. \u201cYou can rack up $4,000 to $5,000 worth of fines and costs in a heartbeat,\u201d Calhoun County Circuit Judge Bud Turner told the paper. Last year the Alabama legislature approved a slew of increased court fees intended to raise more than $20 million to bolster the state\u2019s court system, which has laid off workers and limited working hours in recent years due to budget constraints. \u201cA lot of court systems are struggling, across the country, to fund themselves. They\u2019re turning to court fees as a source of revenue,\u201d\u00a0Lauren-Brooke Eisen<\/strong> told The Star<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cIt adds to what is an insurmountable cycle in the criminal justice system.\u201d Read the Brennan Center\u2019s report on criminal justice debt here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"