Inequalities within the criminal justice system in the United States include: differences in the accessibility to justice, disproportionate arrest rates among races, disproportionate incarceration rates among races (as shown in the image on the left), and inequalities with fines and fees.  Within these issues, countless other issues arise.  This begs the question, what can be done to make the criminal justice system more fair in the United States? 

This question has a variety of answers, and because there is no criminal justice reform on a national level, the implementation of criminal justice reform within the City of Dayton will be explored below.  In order to explore the implementation of criminal justice reform in Dayton, the major inequities listed above will be explained more in depth.  

While the percentage of white and black people who use drugs is very close, there are almost triple the amount of black people per 100,000 residents arrested for drugs than white people. Many minority neighborhoods are often met with increased police presence, which often leads to more arrests. Police in the past and in many places still today are able to use the odor of marijuana as a reason to search.

The prison population is not representative of the US population as a whole. While Blacks make up 13% of the population, they are a staggering 40% of the prison population, and while Whites are 64% of the population, they make up only 39% of the prison population. There are more Black people incarcerated than white people, meanwhile there are five times more white people in the United States. The White incarcerated population is underrepresented while the Black incarcerated population is overrepresented. 

For additional information about Access to Justice visit Access to What? or travel to our page dedicated to access to justice  here.

The Eighth Amendment states that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. The problem with this is that there is no clear constitutional test for determining excessiveness of fines. 

If a person cannot pay their fines and fees, they often receive late fees and interest, which add to their debt. Some states even suspend driver's licenses or imprison people who cannot pay their fines and fees. These harsh punishments make it harder for people to actually pay their fines and fees because it affects their access to jobs, it impedes their parenting and other caregiving, and it can lead to voter disenfranchisement. 

People of color and lower-income communities are the most affected by fines and fees. When people are unable to pay their fines or fees, it affects their family because it is taking away the resources that they need to be able to afford rent, buy food, and care for their children. 

Another issue with fines and fees is that some towns or cities relies on fines and fees. For example, Newburgh Heights is a village just south of Cleveland, Ohio. A short stretch of Interstate 77 passes through their town. The revenue from traffic citations, which typically accounts for more than half the town's budget, totaled $3 million in 2019. Cities and towns are relying to much on fines and fees that most of the revenue is coming from them which helps the cities and towns but does not help the people who have to pay them.  

As a result of National and local incidences of racial bias, the Dayton Branch of NAACP, has reached out to the Dayton Police Department in hopes to better race relations between the community and the police. The Dayton Branch of the NAACP cites reform actions such as police body cams and increased trainings as being a great reform action that has been implemented by Dayton Police Department.  

Moving forward, the Dayton NAACP hopes that the Dayton Police Department will help in the implementation of a citizen's review board that will stand in place to maintain police accountability.  

There is very little information about reforms currently in place addressing the fines and fees system in the city of Dayton. Based on available information, there have been initiatives in the past to eliminate a portion of the fines and court fees citizens owe. Within this initiative, persons with fines and court fees that were over 30 days over due were able to pay half of their owed amount, and the remaining fines and fees were negated. These efforts were established in part because of the impacts of the pandemic.  

In the future, ideally there will be additional efforts to alleviate  the burden of fines and fees.  It is also hopefully that as a result of reform in other areas of the criminal justice system in Dayton that information about fines and fees in the City of Dayton will be more accessible to the public.