Minors going through the court system can face fees and other monetary costs, but a proposal making its way through the state Legislature would eliminate those fines.
House Bill 317 would prohibit assessing fees, fines and other court costs against juveniles, as introduced by Rep. Sonny Ganaden of O'ahu.
"We have a lot of data from nonprofit service providers, people who work with kids that suggest that youth fines and fees don't work to assist young people in becoming healthy adults, in becoming capable members of society," Ganaden said Wednesday.
It's a practice that's already in play.
"Judges have essentially stopped assessing fines because they know they don't work, but this just kind of codified it into law," Ganaden continued.
Andrew Park is a family court judge within Oʻahu’s First Circuit Court. On Tuesday, he said the court rarely imposes fines on juveniles already, though it may happen in some cases.
"They can come back later and ask the court to convert that to community service, they can even pay that fine off through the accountability program that the judiciary has, which is kind of a separate thing," Park said.
In cases where a judge may impose a fee, Park said it usually has to do with other circumstances.
"In an instance where a young adult had a job and was in school and preferred to pay the fine rather than take away from your studies or lose hours at work by agreement, I impose that fine," Park said. "It's something that's rare, and we would not typically do that."
In written testimony, Park said the judiciary has concerns about a part of the bill that would discharge or remove prior assessed debt retroactively. This would likely need to be researched and may affect existing contracts and agreements with collection agencies.
Ganaden said this bill is offered with others seeking to reform the state's juvenile justice landscape.
"Learning to change a justice system that takes those best practices into account, or working with kids, and also taking into account the diversity of our culture here in Hawaiʻi that knowing that these fines have been levied inconsistently, usually against Pacific Islander youth and their families," Ganaden said.
