The Hidden Neoliberal State, Governing Logics, and the Rise of New York’s Legal Surcharges and Fees

• In Event: 50614 - Organizations as Legal Actors

Abstract

Monetary sanctions, also known as legal financial obligations (LFOs), are embedded throughout U.S. legal systems. These fines, fees, surcharges, and other costs systematically extract wealth, time, and energy from people in the carceral system. Scholars trace the origins of LFOs to early Black codes and Jim Crow laws, situating them as part of racial capitalism penology and predatory neoliberal governance, which traps people and their families in cycles of debt and punishment. Detailed examinations of the origins of specific LFOs, such as pay-to-stay fees and criminal fines, highlight the fiscal and moral logics that legislators use to justify new sanctions. This paper builds on that work by examining New York’s mandatory surcharges and fees from early legislative proposals in the 1970s to their most recent increases in 2008. Findings show how the deployment of fiscal and moral logics mirrors broader shifts in governing principles, making the use and expansion of these LFOs increasingly routine and uncontested. Over time, they became embedded alongside other fees, such as those for towing, nursing, and licensing. This shows how predation, as well as the normalization of individual “responsibilization,” became commonplace. The paper helps explain the growth and persistence of surcharges and fees stemming from governing logics and governing structures.

Author

• Angela LaScala-Gruenewald, University of Massachusetts Amherst