Estimated Effect of Fee Repeal on Family Financial Stress and Juvenile Probation Outcomes

Juvenile justice agencies often impose fees on families to offset the cost of their child’s legal representation, detention, and supervision. Increasingly, advocates are calling for fees to be repealed to mitigate the stress and harm of monetary sanctions. But little is known about the impact of fee repeal on (a) the financial burden that families carry (overall and given a potential compensatory increase in other sanctions like fines), (b) youths’ length of probation, and (c) the likelihood that youth will reoffend in the future. In this study, we address these questions by applying a rigorous causal inference approach (targeted maximum likelihood estimation) to data on 2,401 youth placed on probation before and after fee repeal in an urban county. Results provide no evidence that fee repeal increased fines or other monetary sanctions. Families’ estimated likelihood of experiencing any monetary sanction was 22.2% lower postrepeal compared to prerepeal— and the total amount of sanctions was reduced by $1,583 (or 70%). Youths’ estimated length of probation was over 4 months shorter postrepeal compared to prerepeal (133 days). However, there was no significant difference in youths’ likelihood of rearrest over a 2-year follow-up period. Results suggest that fee repeal is a powerful policy lever for reducing financial stress on families and reducing children’s terms of probation—but does not prevent rearrest.