Redeemable Fines: Overcoming the Crisis of Overincarceration

Abstract

In this Essay, we introduce a new mechanism uniquely designed to achieve rehabilitation of offenders and improve the criminal justice system: the redeemable fine. A redeemable fine is a monetary penalty that will be returned to the offender—in installments or, in exceptional cases, in one payment—over a certain period so long as she or he commits no further crimes. Unlike traditional fines, redeemable fines can be structured in a myriad of ways to provide individually tailored optimal rehabilitative incentives for offenders. First, the installment period of the repayment can be short (several months) or long (several years), depending on the characteristics of the offense and the offender. Second, there is the frequency of the payments. The payment intervals can be long, short, intermediate or variable. The sentencing judge will be able to order that the repayments will be made annually, every six months, every single month or, in exceptional cases, in one installment on the successful completion of the rehabilitation. As with traditional fines, the redeemable fine’s amount will correlate with the seriousness of the offender’s misdeed. For these and other reasons, introduction of redeemable fines can dramatically reduce the rates and the costs of incarceration and render the criminal justice system fairer and more humane, while providing meaningful incentives for offenders not to commit further offenses.

Keywords: redeemable fines, fines, incarceration crisis, criminal justice, criminal law, sentencing

JEL Classification: K1, K14