Day fines as an alternative sentencing mechanism

Criminal Justice

Day Fines

Why are day fines a good idea?

Day fines are also known as structured fines. They were first started in Western Europe and are heavily used there today. Day fines are based on the notion that punishment by a fine should be proportionate to the seriousness of the offense committed. The concept is largely based on the concept in order for punishments to act as deterrents, they must be certain, severe and swift. Structured fines figured by a two-step process. The first step is to establish a scale that ranks offenses according to their severity. And from this the number of structured fine units for a crime is determined. The second step consists of by figuring the dollar amount of the fine. It is figured by multiplying the number of fine units by a proportion of an offender's net daily income which has been adjusted to account for dependents and special circumstances (Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, 2003).

One of the biggest advantages of structured fines is that they offer offender accountability. Structured fines are unequivocally punitive, with the severity of the punishment in terms of monetary impact on the individual offender varying with the seriousness of the offense. The offender is made to pay his or her debt to society. Other advantages of day fines include: deterrence, fairness, effective and efficient use of limited system resources and increased revenue (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1996).

Day fines are an intermediate sanction. They are more severe than unsupervised probation, but do not involve being incarcerated in jail or prison. They allow for criminals to be held accountable for their actions, while generating revenue and lessening the prison overcrowding problem that is faced by nearly every jurisdiction.

What would you do with offenders who didn't pay?

No matter how well a structured fine program is designed and implemented, some convicted defendants will never pay the fine ordered by the court. The traditional backup sanction for nonpayment of a fine has been the use of jail as an alternative sentence. Yet, because jail space is a scarce resource in most jurisdictions, it is important to have statutory authority for other sanctions that can be used when an offender does not pay the fine (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1996).

There are three types of sanctions that can be used as backups when an offender fails to pay the fine that has been imposed: community-based sanctions, civil mechanisms, and incarceration. The following are examples of community-based sanctions that can be used in the event of nonpayment: (1) Community Service, (2) Day Reporting Centers, (3) Home Confinement, and (4) Halfway Houses/Work Release Centers (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1996).

Civil mechanisms that can be used include garnishment of wages, interception of income tax refunds, driver's license suspensions, denial of automobile registration renewals, or the use of distress warrants authorizing seizure and sale of personal property belonging to the nonpaying offender (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1996).