Raising the Stakes on Punishment: The Development of Monetary Sanctions in Texas

• In Event: 2463 - Sociology of Law

Abstract

In the current transitional period in criminal justice reform, intermediate and alternative forms of punishment have surfaced as economic imperatives. Monetary sanctions have a broad appeal to the goals of punishment and revenue generation. Theoretical explanations suggest a myriad of individual, institutional, and structural forces create political opportunities for criminal justice expansion. In this study, I provide a historical account on the development of monetary sanctions in Texas – home to the largest criminal justice system in America – to explicate the political processes and arrangements that gave rise to criminal court costs. I investigate the development of monetary sanctions law as a series of historical periods by using legislative records, fiscal analyses, public testimonies, newspaper articles, and criminal justice statistics. I describe trends in the expansion of monetary sanctions as a product of legal ambiguity and institutional annexation and dependence. I show that the legislation became increasingly inclusive of other institutions and organizations – many of which were not directly involved with the formal criminal justice system – which fostered a dependence on monetary sanctions for revenue. Findings contribute to research on punishment and penal policy by further illustrating how policy reforms may produce systems of alternative punishment that paradoxically become severe and wide-reaching.

Author

• Kevin Dahaghi