About Us
Our Mission
The mission of the Fines & Fees Freedom Fund is to end debt-based incarceration through direct support of the lawyers and impacted people fighting our legal system’s criminalization of poverty.
Our system of criminal fines and fees destroys lives. Even a ticket for something as minor as failing to signal a lane change or fix a broken taillight can spiral into hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in fines and fees. For those who can’t afford to pay, court debt leads to a host of collateral consequences: incarceration, job loss, family separation, license suspension, and more – trapping people in a vicious cycle of criminalization and poverty.
The Fines and Fees Freedom Fund originated from the Strategic Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School. Through working with incarcerated clients, it became apparent that - in addition to the need for ongoing legal and systems change efforts, there are people at risk of incarceration who cannot wait for policy change.
We connect legal assistance providers to people at risk of incarceration for inability to pay, and for those who have exhausted all legal remedies, we pay their debt. We bring lawyers, law students, and impacted people together to advance the movement against fines and fees. And we apply our expertise and that of our network to push for change at the policy level.
Our Work
In 2021, we launched our pilot project in Texas. Leveraging our unique model and working closely with the Texas Fair Defense Project, we canceled seven warrants for arrest, keeping six people out of jail and waiving more than $2,000 in debt. Since then, we’ve met with more than 30 experts, affected people, and collaborators, and we are gearing up for our first policy campaign.
This Spring, we’re launching Oklahoma’s first ever fines and fees legal assistance clinic and seeking to clear 10 more warrants for arrest.* We’re also managing a team of public policy and computer science students at Harvard to develop digital tools that will expand legal aid providers’ capacity. And we’re building our project into a sustainable, scalable organization, adding three more expert advisors to our team and strengthening our fundraising capacity.
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Alejandra Uría
Co-Founder
Alejandra conceived of F4 while participating in litigation and policy reform efforts to protect the rights of incarcerated people while in law school. She now works as an Associate at Arnold & Porter, and previously interned at the ACLU and the Department of Justice. Alejandra is a graduate of Yale Law School.
