New Jersey is a proven leader in criminal justice reform. Prior to the groundbreaking Criminal Justice Reform Act in 2017, thousands of poor individuals languished in county jails awaiting trial—on average, for nearly a year—because they could not afford bail. Last month, the Third Circuit upheld New Jersey’s bold move away from monetary bail to a risk-based system for detention, thereby preserving the basic principle of equal justice that how much money a person has should not determine whether he or she is incarcerated.

But the State’s work is not done to eliminate the criminalization of poverty in New Jersey. Continuing its leadership on this issue, New Jersey should now turn to reforming the laws that impose a cascade of court fines and permit the suspension of hundreds of thousands of driver’s licenses each year simply because of residents’ inability to pay justice-related debt.

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