[Michlib-l] Penal Fines drastic cut

Wed Aug 6 14:35:16 EDT 2025

Last year our penal fines were down by $4000.00 this year it was only down
by $1000.00. It is not easy to budget when it is up and down.

On Wed, Aug 6, 2025 at 2:26 PM WCCL Amy Stockwell via Michlib-l <
michlib-l at mcls.org> wrote:

> Sorry.  I was overly vague in my response.  They did collect penal fines,
> but it was about half as the previous years.  For the county it was around
> $68,000 and last year it was $131,000.  The county dispersed what they had,
> but said that they can’t disperse what isn’t collected by the courts.
>
>
>
> So I have to assume that our officers are being rather lenient with
> tickets.  Maybe I should start speeding!  😊
>
>
>
> *From:* Membiela, Clare (MDE) <MembielaC at michigan.gov>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 6, 2025 12:52 PM
> *To:* WCCL Amy Stockwell <amy at whitecloudlibrary.org>; michlib-l at mcls.org
> *Cc:* Hamlin, Joseph (MDE) <HamlinJ2 at michigan.gov>
> *Subject:* RE: [Michlib-l] Penal Fines drastic cut
>
>
>
> So , just so I understand, the courts did not send any penal fines to the
> county treasurer?
>
>
>
> That sounds pretty suspicious to me – I’ll send Joe a note and we’ll
> confirm this.
>
>
>
> There are sometimes some misunderstandings about what is a penal fine –
> either Joe or I will get back to you.
>
>
>
> Clare
>
>
>
> Clare D. Membiela, MLS, J.D.
>
> Library Law Consultant
>
> Library of Michigan
>
> MembielaC at michigan.gov
>
> 517-335-8132
>
>
>
> *The research and resources above are for informational purposes only and
> not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your
> attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem.*
>
>
>
> *“the State may not, consistently with the spirit of the First Amendment,
> contract the spectrum of available knowledge**.”* *Griswold v.
> Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 482 (1965).*
>
> Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan
> <https://www.michigan.gov/mde/resources/michigan-top-10-strategic-education-plan>
> provides focused direction to drive educational achievement in support of
> all learners.
>
>
>
> Nourishing Michigan’s Future during the summer!
>
> Find a Summer Food Service Program site nearest you and encourage
> Michigan’s children to Meet Up and Eat Up! Michigan.gov/MeetUpEatUp
> <http://www.michigan.gov/meetupeatup>.
>
> [image: Michigan.gov/Vote logo Description automatically generated]
> <https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us/>
>
> Get personalized voter information on early voting and other topics at
> Michigan.gov/Vote <https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us/>.
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* WCCL Amy Stockwell <amy at whitecloudlibrary.org>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 6, 2025 12:48 PM
> *To:* Membiela, Clare (MDE) <MembielaC at michigan.gov>; michlib-l at mcls.org
> *Cc:* Hamlin, Joseph (MDE) <HamlinJ2 at michigan.gov>
> *Subject:* RE: [Michlib-l] Penal Fines drastic cut
>
>
>
> *CAUTION: This is an External email. Please send suspicious emails to
> abuse at michigan.gov <abuse at michigan.gov>*
>
>
>
> Thank you!
>
>
>
> I am good friends with our deputy treasurer for the county and my text to
> her was “Do we no longer arrest people in this county??  What happened to
> my penal fines?!”  They simply didn’t collect them so there isn’t anything
> to disperse.  I was kind of hoping that it was actually a diversion so I
> had someone somewhere to blame other than the judge who might try one of my
> cases someday.  😊
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Membiela, Clare (MDE) <MembielaC at michigan.gov>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 6, 2025 12:33 PM
> *To:* WCCL Amy Stockwell <amy at whitecloudlibrary.org>; michlib-l at mcls.org
> *Cc:* Hamlin, Joseph (MDE) <HamlinJ2 at michigan.gov>
> *Subject:* RE: [Michlib-l] Penal Fines drastic cut
>
>
>
> Hello Amy:
>
>
>
> Joe Hamlin, who manages the penal fine program for LM, is on vacation
> until the end of this week. I can tell you, however, that all of the
> information we receive from the County Treasurers regarding the amount of
> penal fines they distributed has not yet been fully received and analyzed.
>
>
>
> Penal fines can be affected by many factors including caseload, changes in
> the laws, local police enforcement, etc. Penal fines vary so drastically
> from county to county, the amounts other libraries received may not be of
> much help to you in why yours were less.
>
>
>
> It is unlikely a diversion (which actually rarely happens)  but if you
> e-mail Joe at hamlinJ2 at michigan.gov and let him know how much you
> received and your concerns, he can assist you.
>
>
>
> In addition, you should contact your county treasurer because they are the
> best source to explain how they arrived at the amount of money you received.
>
>
>
> I “cc’d” Joe on this e-mail and he will see it when he returns.
>
>
>
> I hope this helps!
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Clare
>
>
>
> Clare D. Membiela, MLS, J.D.
>
> Library Law Consultant
>
> Library of Michigan
>
> MembielaC at michigan.gov
>
> 517-335-8132
>
>
>
> *The research and resources above are for informational purposes only and
> not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your
> attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem.*
>
>
>
> *“the State may not, consistently with the spirit of the First Amendment,
> contract the spectrum of available knowledge**.”* *Griswold v.
> Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 482 (1965).*
>
> Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan
> <https://www.michigan.gov/mde/resources/michigan-top-10-strategic-education-plan>
> provides focused direction to drive educational achievement in support of
> all learners.
>
>
>
> Nourishing Michigan’s Future during the summer!
>
> Find a Summer Food Service Program site nearest you and encourage
> Michigan’s children to Meet Up and Eat Up! Michigan.gov/MeetUpEatUp
> <http://www.michigan.gov/meetupeatup>.
>
> [image: Michigan.gov/Vote logo Description automatically generated]
> <https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us/>
>
> Get personalized voter information on early voting and other topics at
> Michigan.gov/Vote <https://mvic.sos.state.mi.us/>.
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Michlib-l <michlib-l-bounces at mcls.org> *On Behalf Of *WCCL Amy
> Stockwell via Michlib-l
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 6, 2025 12:20 PM
> *To:* michlib-l at mcls.org
> *Subject:* [Michlib-l] Penal Fines drastic cut
>
>
>
> *CAUTION: This is an External email. Please send suspicious emails to
> abuse at michigan.gov <abuse at michigan.gov>*
>
>
>
> Hello,
>
>
>
> I am just checking to see if other counties had a drastic cut to their
> penal fines this year?  Our County just paid out and it was HALF what all
> of us had budgeted for the year, based on the past 10+ years.
>
>
>
> Was there a diversion of funds from Penal Fines that I didn’t catch or is
> my county just not issuing enough fines?  😊
>
>
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
> [image: Amy.org Signature]
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Michlib-l mailing list
> Michlib-l at mcls.org
> https://mail3.mcls.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20250806/f193e34b/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 11592 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20250806/f193e34b/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 8937 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20250806/f193e34b/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 8922 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20250806/f193e34b/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.png
Type: image/png
Size: 55838 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20250806/f193e34b/attachment-0003.png>