All Stigma, No Courtesy: Piling-On and Anti-Black Racism in LFO Sentencing

• In Event: Marked and Marginalized: Race, Gender, and the Narratives of Legal Exclusion

Abstract

In 2011, Harris et al. described monetary sanctions as a “discretionary supplement” to carceral and supervisory sentences, one that is similarly susceptible to racism and bias. The analyses and discussion stemming from their use of a socio-cultural theory of punishment indicated that Black people were sentenced to higher LFO amounts than white people, that people in counties with larger Black populations received higher penalties, and that financial penalties served as a state-sponsored expression of racialized moral outrage. Here, we replicate their work and expand both their analytical and theoretical frameworks to understand how LFO amounts interact with additional concurrent sentencing options—such as jail, prison, and community supervision. Using administrative data on over 57,000 felony convictions in Washington State (2016-2019), we find that not only do racialized patterns of LFO sentencing persist, but Black people and those in counties with larger Black populations are also vulnerable to “pile-on” punishment practices: LFO amounts increase as additional concurrent penalties are added to their punishment package. Our findings are consistent with a socio-cultural theory of punishment, as we argue that this “piling on” helps transform financial penalties from executable sentences to symbolic punishments anchored in anti-Black racism.

Authors

• Kate K. O'Neill, University of Iowa

• Alexes Harris, University of Washington