[Excerpts] 

Starla considered her options carefully — pay her fines from previous incarceration or pay for groceries and a place for her and her children to stay.
"It was either eat and have a place to lay my head or pay my tickets," she said.

(She) chose to pay for food and rent instead of her fines. Her choice set in motion a familiar cycle...after almost 10 years of incarceration...those unpaid fines and penalties were waiting for her upon her release — and they had multiplied to the tune of about $11,000 owed to three different counties.

The former inmate shared her story before the start of a free Fines and Fees Client Clinic hosted by Voices Organized In Civic Engagement, or VOICE, and Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma. Representatives of VOICE member organizations and Legal Aid teamed up to help Starla and other formerly incarcerated individuals fill out forms designed to help judges determine their ability to pay fines and fees from previous incarceration….

[Excerpt]

"VOICE — Voices Organized in Civic Engagement — reports that the poorest Oklahomans inevitably fall behind on their payments and are victim to an endless cycle of bench warrants, arrests, driver’s license suspensions and incarceration, thus exacerbating the state’s incarceration problem.

Many offenders can only afford a public offender[sic], cannot afford bail and are only given the evidence against them 10 days before trial. Thus, 95% of charges are pleaded out regardless of a person’s guilt, according to VOICE...