School-arrest fines cascade into wage garnishment and asset seizure

Evidence

The costs these policies inflict on black families have not been fully accounted for. They include bail, being evicted from public housing due to the child’s arrest and having to move, and fees for probation, supervision, evaluation, testing, expunging a record, and electronic monitoring devices, just to name a few. Henning adds, “When families fail to pay the fines or fees, the state can send collection agencies after them, tack on interest, garnish their wages, seize their bank accounts, intercept their tax refunds, suspend their driver’s licenses, or charge them with contempt of court.” — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 427

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the reparations accounting case: these unquantified family-level costs are a direct harm ledger entry, echoing earlier chapters’ wealth-stripping mechanisms.
• SEED: The unaccounted family-cost list is a built-in accounting framework for a reparations harms-tally essay.