Effect of Juvenile Justice Fee Repeal on Financial Sanctions Borne by Families

Juvenile justice agencies often impose fees on parents and guardians to offset the cost of their child’s legal representation, detention, and supervision. Increasingly, advocates are calling for fee repeal, to mitigate the costs and harms of various monetary sanctions. But is removing fees likely to have an appreciable effect on the financial burden families carry? Applying a rigorous causal inference approach to data on 2,401 youth placed on probation before and after a fee repeal in Alameda County, we estimate that the likelihood of experiencing any financial sanction was 22.2% lower post-repeal compared to pre-repeal, and the total amount of sanctions was $1,583 (or 70%) lower. These benefits did not depend on families’ socioeconomic status. Our analysis indicates that fee repeal can be a powerful policy lever for doing less financial harm to families during their children’s terms of probation. This study provides empirical evidence that helps bolster a growing national effort to eliminate juvenile fees.