LA County to stop collecting old juvenile detention fees

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County supervisors have voted to stop collecting fees once charged to parents and guardians of juvenile delinquents for their incarceration — erasing nearly $90 million of families’ debt.

The Los Angeles Times reports the vote Tuesday ends a practice decried by criminal justice advocates as an unfair tax on minorities and an ineffective means of rehabilitating young people who commit crimes.

The motion directs the county’s Probation Department to stop accepting payment and cancel nearly $90 million in juvenile detention fees assessed before 2009. That’s when the department suspended new fees but continued to collect payment of old ones.

The newspaper says the vote follows a statewide ban on a range of court costs and fees charged to parents and guardians of children in the juvenile justice system.