California courts often require individuals to complete court-mandated programs — such as DUI education, domestic violence counseling, or substance use rehabilitation — as part of sentencing or license reinstatement. These programs are meant to support rehabilitation, but for many low-income participants, they do the opposite.

These programs often cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. If a person can’t pay in full, they may be denied credit for completion, delayed in restoring their driver’s license, or even face jail time — despite doing everything the court asked of them.

That’s not rehabilitation. That’s punishment for being poor.

In In re Humphrey (2021), the California Supreme Court ruled that courts must consider a person’s ability to pay before imposing pretrial detention or excessive financial conditions. The Court affirmed that poverty should not determine the severity of punishment or access to justice.

That same principle must apply to all court-mandated programs: if the state requires you to complete something to avoid jail, reinstate your license, or finish your sentence, it must be affordable to the person ordered to do it. Otherwise, it violates the spirit of Humphrey by turning rehabilitation into a financial barrier.

Even worse, many programs only offer reduced fees to those who qualify for General Assistance (GA) — a benefit unavailable to people with dependent children. That means parents — especially single mothers — are automatically excluded from financial relief, no matter how low their income.

This creates a second layer of discrimination:

You’re penalized for being poor, and again for being a parent.
We are calling on California lawmakers and the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to:

Establish mandatory statewide sliding scale pricing for all court-mandated programs based on income
Prohibit programs from withholding completion certificates solely due to unpaid balances
End policies that offer reduced fees only to GA recipients, which clearly discriminate against people with children
True rehabilitation requires support, not punishment. The state must ensure that low-income Californians — especially parents — can meet the terms of their sentence without being trapped in a cycle of poverty, suspended licenses, and reoffending.

Justice should be based on behavior — not your bank account, and not your parental status.