New Report: In America, the Price of Freedom Is Debt

JustLeadershipUSA, Hip Hop Caucus & Americans for Financial Reform Call for Federal Action to End ‘The Cost of Conviction’

After a national press briefing today, JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA), the Hip Hop Caucus (HHC) and the Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) Education Fund have released “The Cost of Conviction,” a collaborative policy brief detailing how court fines, prison phone costs, and financial surveillance systems trap millions of families in debt long after incarceration. The report also outlines concrete steps Congress and federal agencies can take now to fix it.

The report finds that families of incarcerated people shoulder more than $350 billion every year in fines, fees, restitution, and inflated communications costs. Nearly one in three people returning from prison are unbanked or underbanked, often blocked from opening accounts because of outdated background-check providers like ChexSystems.

“Our justice system runs on debt. Every call, every fee, every background check turns freedom into another bill,” said DeAnna Hoskins, President and CEO of JLUSA. “You can serve your time and still be shut out of the basics: a job, a bank account, a phone call with your child. You can’t expect people to move forward when the system keeps cashing in on their past.”

“The Cost of Conviction” report details how the FCC’s proposed revisions rolled back critical communication-cost protections for incarcerated people and how these changes deepen the financial burden on families. It also exposes the growing “financial surveillance systems that extend punishment beyond incarceration”: private background-check errors, excessive parole fees, and electronic monitoring programs that turn debt into a reason for re-incarceration.

“We talk about second chances, but our financial systems don’t provide them,” said Ronald Simpson-Bey, Executive Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at JLUSA. “The same data brokers and credit screeners that block people from housing or jobs are now deciding who gets a bank account. It’s mass punishment hiding behind a spreadsheet. Congress and regulators already have the power to fix it. They just need to use it.”

“Every bill, every fee, every so-called ‘service charge’ hits the same people who can least afford it,” said Stephone Coward, Economic Justice, Justice Paid in Full Campaigns Director, Hip Hop Caucus. “When you’re coming home, you’re told to get a job and stay out of trouble, but you can’t even open a checking account or pay for the call to set up an interview. That’s not a second chance, that’s a setup.”

“Today’s financial surveillance system continues the logic of redlining in a digital and data-driven form,” said Amanda N. Jackson, formerly the Director of Consumer Campaigns at AFR’s Education Fund. “People with records aren’t just overpoliced—they’re overmonitored, overcharged, and excluded from the tools that build stability.”

“Families shouldn’t have to go into debt just to stay connected or meet supervision requirements,” Coward added. “These policies punish families for caring.”

JLUSA, Hip Hop Caucus, and AFR are calling on Congress and regulators to:

• Further reduce the cap for prison and jail communication costs under the Martha Wright-Reed Act and restore FCC oversight
• Limit criminal-record lookbacks under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to stop lifetime financial penalties
• Expand access to safe, low-fee banking through public and postal banking options
• Adopt equitable banking standards that prevent automatic account denials based on incarceration
• Strengthen and enforce state UDAP and CRA laws to hold financial institutions accountable for discrimination and predatory practices

The full “Cost of Conviction” report is available at justuscc.org/costofconviction.