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Minutes for HB2073 - Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice
Short Title
Prohibiting fines and fees from being assessed against a juvenile or a juvenile's parent, guardian or custodian in a case pursuant to the revised Kansas juvenile justice code.
Minutes Content for Thu, Jan 26, 2023
Chairperson Owens opened the hearing on HB2073. Natalie Scott reviewed the bill. (Attachment 1) Ms. Scott responded to questions from committee members.
Chairperson Owens asked that questions be held until all conferees had testified. Questions would follow at that point.
Noah Bein, State Policy Manager, Justice Action Network testified in support of the bill. He said this legislation is the right thing to do to strengthen families, bolster government accountability and keep communities safe. There is no evidence that imposing fines and fees on kids makes Kansans safer and that there is some evidence that financial obligations can increase the victimization of communities through higher recidivism. (Attachment 2)
Tyler Williams, Progeny testified in support of the bill. Mr. Williams shared his personal experience as a formally adjudicated youth in the state of Kansas and the financial burden placed upon him by the juvenile justice system. He stated that if we really want to help kids rehabilitate back into society after making a mistake, we need to stop trapping them in financial burdens. (Attachment 3)
Jonathan Lueth, Deputy State Director, Americans for Prosperity Kansas testified in support of the bill. He shared that within his written testimony, he provided several sources and citations for a number of studies and publications that examine the effectiveness and impact of fines and fees within the juvenile justice system. Each of those studies have shown that when juveniles are facing large accumulations of debt through these fines and fees, the likelihood of recidivism spikes, the likelihood of successful re-entry plummets, and often times this culminates in a lot of long-term, inadvertent negative interactions within the justice systems for these individuals for significant portions of both their juvenile and adult life. (Attachment 4)
Jamie Cavanaugh, Attorney, Institute for Justice testified in support of the bill. Ms. Cavanaugh said the goal of juvenile justice is to rehabilitate youth and set them up for success as adults, but charging youth fines and fees creates another hurdle to future success. She said Kansas charges more fines and fees to youth and their families than almost any other state. Being poor is not a crime - the system should not be treating some youth worse because of their inability to pay fines and fees and it is unrealistic to think that youth have a way to pay court debt. We should be encouraging youth to focus on their education instead of getting jobs to pay down court debt. (Attachment 5)
Desmond Bryant-White, Program Manager of Progeny, Destination Innovation testified in support of the bill. He shared that fines and fees are still lingering over his life even though a lot of those fees happened over 15 years ago. He said he is still trying to pay off those fees and get his life back together. He asked the committee to do what they can to help pass this bill to eliminate youth fines and fees this year. (Attachment 6)
Dante Bristow, Progeny Youth Leader, Destination Innovation testified in support of the bill. Mr. Bristow shared his personal experience being a juvenile assessed fines and fees and the impact that burden has had upon his life. (Attachment 7)
Mike Fonkert, Campaign Director, Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice testified in support of the bill. He said this is a bill that really needs to get done this year. Those testifying today want to make sure justice involved kids are not burdened by fines and fees and that kids can focus on doing what they need to do to set themselves up for success. (Attachment 8)
Aileen Berquist, Policy Director, Americans Civil Liberties Union testified in support of the bill. Ms. Berquist said working on eliminating fines and fees has been a labor of love and hoped the tremendous bipartisan work that has been done will continue so there can be a positive impact in the lives of Kansas kids and their families. (Attachment 9)
The conferees responded to questions from committee members.
Written only testimony in support of the bill was submitted by:
- James Houston Bales, Public Defender, State Board of Indigent Defense Services (Attachment 10)
- Karvua Kaseke, Fiscal Policy Analyst, Kansas Action for Children (Attachment 11)
- Retired Sheriff Currie Myers, Americans for Prosperity (Attachment 12)
- Lindsey Smith, Staff Attorney, Juvenile Law Center (Attachment 13)
- Executive Committee, Kansas Advisory Group (Attachment 14)
- Katrina Goodjoint, The Gault Center (Attachment 15)
- Logan Byrd, Private Citizen (Attachment 16)
There was no neutral nor opponent testimony.
Chairperson Owens closed the hearing on HB2073.
