A new University of Washington School of Public Health study sustains a long-held argument that court-imposed fees and fines may keep the most vulnerable people ensnared in a vicious cycle of poverty and incarceration.

The researchers found that, among a group of adults experiencing homelessness in the Seattle area, people with outstanding legal debt spent two more years without stable housing than those without legal debt. The study was published June 4 in the Journal of Public Health.

Amy Hagopian, a professor of global health, is a co-author of this study.

Read the entire story at UW School of Public Health.