CJS as Revenue-Generating Machine The stated purpose of the criminal justice system is to provide for public safety. However, a 2015 report by the Police Executive Research Forum into the practices of...

CJS as Revenue-Generating Machine

The stated purpose of the criminal justice system is to provide for public safety. However, a 2015 report by the Police Executive Research Forum into the practices of the local governments in St. Louis County, Missouri, following the shooting of an unarmed black Ferguson teenager suggests that local politicians use the police, code enforcement offices, and municipal courts as “revenue-generating machines” to finance the city budget.20 According to the report, nearly 50% of some city’s budgets were financed by traffic tickets and fines. When the state legislature limited a city’s revenues from traffic fines to 12.5%, cities turned to code enforcement and non-traffic fines to make up the financial shortfall. The report concluded that these fines fell disproportionally upon minorities and created a “modern-day debtors’ prison” as residents were unable to pay the fines.²¹
Is it a misuse of the criminal justice system to use it to generate revenue to fund the city’s government? If so, what reforms should occur and how will cities replace the loss of revenue?