Human Trafficking in Inglewood and Surrounding Cities

Administrative fees, penalty assessments, and surcharges, including those charged by Los Angeles County, are extraordinarily burdensome. Individuals exiting the criminal justice system are often charged dozens of administrative fees and surcharges, which total thousands of dollars per person.

State law authorizes counties to charge criminal justice administrative fees. These financial exactions are intended to generate revenue for rehabilitative programs and to fund their operations. However, the Los Angeles County Probation Department has recovered only 23% of these fees charged over a 25 year period.

Over 100 probation officers, law enforcement, and numerous other individuals and organizations propose that probation supervision fees be eliminated or significantly curtailed. Instead, they propose preserving most or all of the savings from reducing probation and parole populations and redirect those resources on improving community based services. 2018-2019 LOS ANGELES COUNTY CIVIL GRAND JURY FINAL REPORT POST RELEASE INMATE FEES 11-

In 2017, California enacted SB 190 (Mitchell, Lara) which ended the imposition of juvenile administrative fees previously charged by Los Angeles County and other counties in California.

The Los Angeles County Probation Department states that over the past twenty five years only 23% of the array of administrative fees has been collected. Based on tabular data provided to the CGJ, less than half of the accounts collected under active supervision are restitution related.

Restitution to victims of crimes is the top priority and payments to other administrative fees can be made only when restitution amounts are satisfied.

State legislation may be required to change or eliminate various categories of collections of administrative fees, penalty assessments, and surcharges including those charged by Los Angeles County.