The role of financial incentives in arrests, tickets, and mass incarceration is often thought of in terms of the role of private contractors and private prisons. But the far greater financial incentive driving arrests and mass incarceration comes from the public sector—the role of police in imposing fines and fees on local residents as a strategy to secure revenues for public budgets. This practice is happening all over the country, but now, a new report from Fines and Fees Justice Center explores the extent of this perverse fiscal strategy in the nation’s capital, Washington DC. Michael Johnson, Jr. of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute joins Rattling the Bars to discuss this eye-opening report, “The Hidden Cost of Justice.”

Transcript: How Financial Incentives Drive Arrests and Tickets

Mansa Musa:

Welcome to this edition of Rattling the Bars. I’m your host, Mansa Musa.

In America, the prison industrial complex has monetized every aspect of imprisonment. Every aspect of imprisonment is monetized to the extent that everybody that’s incarcerated is, not only serving time, but have to pay for the time that they’re serving. So much so that some places they actually pay for to live to stay in prison.

And they’re being told that, if you got a job, a percentage of your money, it’s going towards us. Not going towards the home in an event that a prisoner’s released. But to home and go back into the state’s coffer. Joining me today is Michael Johnson, a policy analyst that’s going to talk about a report that he did about how financial incentives drive arrests and tickets called The Hidden Cost of Prison. Welcome, Mike.

Michael Johnson:

How you doing, Mansa?

Mansa Musa:

I’m good. Hey, introduce yourself. Tell our audience who you are and what you do.

Michael Johnson:

My name is Michael Johnson. I’m a senior policy analyst at DC Fiscal Policy Institute. And my work really focuses on examining the cost particularly of jail and prison. And we focus mainly on DC, but we know this issue is something that affects people across the country. So that’s a little bit about me. And currently, sorry for the noise in the background and everything. I’m at a policy conference in Atlanta right now, but good to be here.

Read the full article about financial incentives in arrests and tickets at The Real News Network.