NCJ Number
113241
Journal
Judicature Volume: 72 Issue: 1 Dated: (June-July 1988) Pages: 38-45
Date Published
1988
Length
8 pages
Annotation
American judges lack experience in assessing an offender's financial means when imposing fines; the 'day-fine' system used in several Western European countries is a useful model and will soon be tested in the United States.
Abstract
The day-fine system is so named because the fine amount is linked to an offender's daily income. The Judge first sentences an offender to a certain number of fine units in accordance with the punishment deemed appropriate for the offense. The judge then calculates the monetary value of each unit according to the offender's financial means. A pilot program for day fines in the United States is being implemented in the Richmond County Criminal Court (Staten Island, N.Y.). This court's caseload includes a variety of cases with a wide range of offenses, and the judges already use fines extensively as sole sanctions. Vera Institute planners and the court judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys have developed an informal, comprehensive set of standards for determining the number of day-fine units to be imposed in individual cases. This consists of 115 day-fine units being distributed across six offense severity levels encompassing misdemeanors and violations. Each offense has been assigned a specific day-fine unit value within the range assigned its severity level. The value of a unit is based on an offender's net daily income, adjusted by formula to account for personal and family responsibilities. In 1988, the implementation and outcomes of this pilot program will be assessed. 2 figures, 19 footnotes.