Millions of dollars in fines, costs and restitution from felony criminal cases are owed to circuit courts throughout Arkansas.
The amounts include $10 million in Craighead County, $6 million in Washington County, $5.4 million in Benton County and $2.8 million in Carroll County.
Those numbers include debts dating back to the 1980s.
Much of that debt can't be collected because the debtors have died or are in prison, said Nathan Smith, deputy prosecuting attorney for Benton County.
"That $5.4 million number probably hasn't risen a lot in the last five or 10 years," said Smith, who will be the county's lead prosecutor beginning in January. "A lot of that debt is probably stale debt from the 1980s and '90s that we are not going to be able to collect."
Collection of circuit court fees, costs and restitution has been a problem statewide. In 2012, Arkansas Chief Justice Jim Hannah met with circuit judges from across the state and encouraged them to begin collecting outstanding debt.
The plan was part of a legislative mandate that increased fines and court fees and pushed collections to bolster the state's Administration of Justice fund, which pays for public defenders, prosecuting attorneys, interpreters, court recorders and other essential personnel. The demands on the fund have increased, and the collections have decreased in recent years, putting a pinch on the agencies that provide court staffs.
Arkansas has 75 counties and 28 judicial circuits. Each county has a circuit clerk who handles cases for that county.
Tough questions
On Monday, state Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, questioned Carroll County Circuit Clerk Ramona Wilson at length during a legislative committee meeting at the state Capitol in Little Rock.
King criticized Wilson for not aggressively collecting the debt and for keeping records on paper ledgers, making it more difficult for others to access the information.
A review by the Division of Legislative Audit, requested by King, indicated several issues with the collection of fines and costs in Carroll County over a recent 18-month period, from Jan. 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014. The review of 370 criminal cases cited 159 "matters," including 53 cases where warrants weren't issued when payments hadn't been made for three months and 31 cases where payments were delinquent and the circuit judge was not notified.
Wilson said the issue is largely political and her books are open for other agencies to inspect.
Department of Legislative Audit staff members "found that fines, costs and restitution collected were properly distributed to the appropriate entities," according to the review.
Collecting money owed to circuit courts in Arkansas is an arduous task, but it can be done, said Tammy Hubble, staff accountant for the Craighead County sheriff's office.
When Hubble went to work for the sheriff's office in 2008, there was $16 million owed to the county's circuit court in fines, costs and restitution from felony criminal cases dating back to the 1980s. After an aggressive effort to collect, she said that number is down to $10 million.
Two years ago, Craighead County authorities sent 1,500 letters to people who owed money to the circuit court. The letters stated that probation or parole could be revoked if a person didn't pay. Apparently, many of them thought that once they had served time in prison, they no longer owed the fines, Hubble said.
"When we sent the letters, a lot of people came in and paid this stuff off," she said. "We were astounded."
Hubble said some of the $6 million reduction in Craighead County was written off because debtors had died.
Designated collector
Arkansas Code Annotated 16-13-709 (a)(1) (A)(i) allows a county's quorum court to designate a collector of debts owed to the circuit court. In most counties it's the sheriff, said Ronnie Baldwin, executive director of the Arkansas Sheriffs Association. But in others, it's the circuit clerk or prosecutor.
Smith said circuit courts will never recoup all the money they're owed.
"I suspect if we get 100 percent of the debt paid from here on out, we are still going to have millions of dollars in debt from the 1980s that we're never going to be able to get," he said.
Benton County has collected $4.3 million in fines, costs and restitution over the past three years, Circuit Clerk Brenda DeShields said.
DeShields said credit card machines will be installed in her office next year to make paying easier. The office also is considering hiring an outside collection agency.
Smith said the Benton County Circuit Court has received $23.3 million since 1982.
Larry Crane, the Pulaski County circuit clerk, said he didn't know how much was owed to the court in his county, and it would be expensive to calculate.
"It is a very time-consuming process to separate out fines from repayment to victims and payments that have been ordered to various penalties and such," said Crane. "And to actually go through the file and see what can be collected through warrants and what can't. One employee said he could go through 20 or 25 cases a day if he didn't do anything but that."
'Capturing' cash
To collect outstanding debts, circuit courts can initiate the process to issue warrants, revoke parole or probation, suspend driver's licenses, or "capture" state income tax returns.
Act 1262 of 1995 made it possible for circuit courts to "capture" state income tax returns, said Kathy Horner, assistant administrator of the Individual Income Tax Section of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. But of more than 100 courts that could participate in the program, only four do.
Phyllis Villines, the Madison County circuit clerk, said other agencies have priority when it comes to capturing state income tax returns, so there might not be much left for the circuit courts.
The Department of Finance and Administration gets priority when sales tax refunds are being captured, said Lynne Reynolds, administrator of income tax for the agency. She said the agency's Office of Child Support Enforcement is second on the priority list, followed by the federal Internal Revenue Service. If any money is left, it can be captured by the courts.
"There are some pretty big entities in front of them," said Reynolds.
Villines said taking someone's driver's license because of failure to pay fines could be counterproductive. If the person doesn't have a driver's license, he can't legally drive to work, where he might be able to make money to pay his court fines, she said.
Villines said about $900,000 in fines, costs and restitution is owed in Madison County and that she has limited resources to collect it.
Keith Caviness, a staff attorney for the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts, said no statewide records are kept on outstanding circuit court fines and fees.
NW News on 12/21/2014