Picture this: On your way home from work after a long week, you’re pulled over and issued a ticket for rolling through a stop sign. The fine is $75 — but once mandatory fees are tacked on, the ticket’s total cost is over $300.

What would happen if you couldn’t afford to pay this cost immediately? In most places in the U.S., your government would tack on additional fees and interest charges, suspend your driver’s license, or even issue a bench warrant — meaning that police could arrest and jail you.

This is just one of the ways that fees in the justice system trap far too many people in a vicious cycle of debt and punishment. Hard-working people living paycheck to paycheck are forced to make once-unimaginable choices: Do I forgo basic necessities like food, medicine, and housing for my family? Or do I pay all these fees in order to avoid arrest and jail?

A burgeoning movement is building momentum in states across the country to tackle this problem head-on. Americans for Prosperity and the ACLU, along with the Fines & Fees Justice Center, recently launched the End Justice Fees campaign to support and sustain advocacy efforts to eliminate fees charged to people at every stage of the justice system. Dozens of organizations from across the political spectrum have signed on as supporters, united in the belief that eliminating these fees is foundational to a fair and effective justice system.

While “fines and fees” are often spoken of in conjunction with one another, they are separate and distinct. Fines are ostensibly imposed as a punishment for violating the law, while fees exist solely to raise money for the government and try to recoup some of the costs created by law enforcement. In practice, fees are a hidden, regressive tax that harshly punish hard-working families living paycheck to paycheck.

Over the past three decades, the number and amount of fees imposed by the justice system has grown exponentially, as states and municipalities have chosen to become reliant on them to fund their growing systems of policing, surveillance, and incarceration. Fees exist at every stage of the justice system — warrant fees, booking fees, pretrial supervision fees, diversion program fees, prosecution fees, probation fees, fees for medical care, phone calls and more during incarceration, and parole fees, among countless others.

Almost everyone charged with a crime is required to pay fees, from people charged with a minor traffic violation or a low-level misdemeanor, to those charged with more serious felonies — who typically spend years in prison without the ability to earn a living, only to reenter their communities trapped in insurmountable debt.

Fees devastate families and entire communities. Most people who are arrested and prosecuted for a crime are already low-income, as evidenced by the fact that about four out of five people in the system are eligible for a court-appointed attorney.

Fees are also disproportionately assessed against certain groups, given the massive racial and economic disparities pervading the justice system. Funding the system this way takes money directly out of the pockets of the families least able to afford them and further locks many individuals in a cycle of economic instability.

When governments rely on fees to fund essential government functions, it creates an incentive for unnecessary laws, regulations, and enforcement. Law enforcement officers spend an extraordinary amount of time and resources on arresting and booking people for minor offenses with hefty fees attached, or for not paying those fees.

We must demand that state and local governments find a better solution for funding the justice system — not only to alleviate the harms caused by fees, but also because fees are an inefficient and unreliable source of funding. While states and municipalities don’t track how much they’re spending on collections and enforcement costs, available research shows the cost of collecting fees consumes nearly 100 times as many taxpayer dollars as collecting revenue through taxation. In fact, some jurisdictions spend more money on collecting fees than what they are raising in revenue through those fees.

A growing number of states are recognizing the harms associated with justice fees and have begun to address them. Oklahoma, Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, and several other states have recently eliminated some or all fees charged to youth in the juvenile system. And just this week, Delaware Gov. Carney signed legislation to eliminate a wide range of fees, including probation and parole fees, counsel fees, and juvenile system fees.

Join us and collaborate in efforts to End Justice Fees. Get started by taking action and showing your support for eliminating fees, and ask your friends to get involved too.

Following a radical Supreme Court term that has had a devastating impact on abortion access, the separation of church and state, immigrants’ rights, privacy, and more, it’s easy to feel powerless. But we can still fight for our rights — starting in our communities, at the ballot box. We have the power to send a message to elected officials about what we value and what we want them to prioritize. Your vote can send a clear message to lawmakers and elected officials that they need to take bold action to stem the tide of attacks on abortion, and protect access to essential care — just as Kansas voters recently did when they defeated a measure that would have stripped the right to abortion from their state constitution.

Trust in American institutions has dramatically decreased in recent years, according to recent polling. Americans are losing confidence in the Supreme Court, politicians, and the media. But people still trust their family, friends, and neighbors.

That’s why your vote is so important this year, and why the ACLU wants to arm you with the knowledge you need to talk to your friends and family about the issues that matter. With just a conversation, you can use your existing networks to mobilize and activate your community.

Here, we break down some of the elected offices you may see on your ballot, so you can better understand how these officials wield the power to protect civil liberties and civil rights. Whether it’s for a district attorney election in your county or a supreme court judge race in your state, you have the power to change this country. This November, let’s remind our elected officials that they don’t have the final say when it comes to our rights — we do.

State attorneys general are the top legal officers of their state. They have the ability to issue legal guidance or formal opinions to state agencies, including opinions on the constitutionality of abortion bans, restrictions on the right to learn, as well as choosing to not enforce education gag orders that restrict teachers and students from being able to learn and discuss issues related to race and gender in the classroom. They can advise their legislature and state agencies on ways to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination and ensure equal access to services, and can also join or initiate lawsuits challenging anti-LGBTQ laws or policies.

In many states, the secretary of state is the state’s chief elections officer with responsibility for oversight and administration of elections. The secretary of state can expand voting access by implementing measures such as automatic voter registration and universal mail-in voting, as well as advocating for a legislative agenda that pushes for greater access.

State supreme courts — often elected or retained by the people in statewide elections — can and often do find that state constitutions protect more rights than the U.S. Constitution, making them a powerful backstop protecting our rights against the attacks they face. They decide cases related to abortion, voting rights, the rights of LGBTQ people, free speech, and more. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, state courts will likely be the final arbiters to decide whether reproductive freedoms are protected in the states, making this role especially crucial.

Also referred to as County Attorney, Prosecuting Attorney, or Commonwealth Attorney in some states, elected prosecutors are the most influential actors in the criminal justice system. They have the power to decide who should be charged with a crime, and can decline to press charges — including declining to prosecute a person accused of violating an abortion ban. Prosecutors’ decisions and their influence over local and state criminal justice laws have been one of the primary drivers of incarceration and racial disparities throughout the justice system. District attorneys can exercise prosecutorial discretion to not bring charges against those accused of violating classroom censorship laws and education gag orders that restrict teachers and students from being able to learn about issues related to race and gender in the classroom. They can also decline to prosecute crimes related to HIV status, sex work, and other criminalization that disproportionately affects LGBTQ people; train staff to respectfully manage cases involving hate crimes and domestic violence; and establish data collection to track treatment of LGBTQ victims and defendants.

School Board representatives can pass important policies to protect LGBTQ students from harassment, discrimination, and bullying, including ensuring students in their district have the right to access restrooms and play sports in accordance with their gender. They can also either endorse or fight back against attempts to restrict school curriculums limiting how race, sexual orientation, and gender identity may be talked about in school, and push back against attempts to remove books by and about LGBTQ people from school libraries.

Join us as we talk to our family and friends about why this election matters and pledge to vote our values.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC1zFW1KN9w