Americans often pay for their crimes twice 鈥� first with a prison sentence, then with a lifetime of聽聽many will never be able to escape.
Last year鈥檚 scathing Department of Justice report on Ferguson, drew national attention to shameful practices to extract revenue from our poorest聽citizens through inordinate fines聽for 聽such as traffic violations. But much less attention has been paid to fines and fees forced on聽those who are convicted of felonies, which plays a similarly destructive role in our society and erodes confidence in our justice system.