The Court Agrees: In prison, a $15 fine means so much more
The Fourth Circuit has revived an incarcerated person’s lawsuit challenging a $15 fine taken from his account as punishment.
by Regan Huston, July 3, 2025
In August of 2020, Demmerick Brown, a man incarcerated in Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison, went to the prison barbershop to get a haircut and a shave. This was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and naturally the barber asked Mr. Brown to remove his protective mask so he could shave his face. The next day, Mr. Brown received a disciplinary ticket fining him $15 for failing to wear a mask.
After a perfunctory disciplinary hearing, Mr. Brown had the money deducted from his trust account. Then, he sued, alleging that he had not been afforded appropriate due process before having his money taken. But the District Court found that he wasn’t entitled to due process. The court said that this was because $15 was too small an amount of money to trigger constitutional protections.
What the court failed to understand is that $15, while just being the cost of a sandwich outside prison walls, represents dozens or hundreds of hours of labor inside, and people rely on the money they make behind bars to fill their basic needs and contact their families.
In 2024, the Prison Policy Initiative filed an Amicus Curae brief in a suit filed by Rights Behind Bars, who represent Demmerick Brown. In our brief, we drew on our years of work studying the economics of life behind bars to help the Fourth Circuit understand that $15 inside doesn’t mean the same thing as $15 does on the outside.
On Tuesday, the Fourth Circuit rightfully reaffirmed that incarcerated people deserve due process rights when their money is taken away from them. The opinion cites our brief, concluding that, “Fifteen dollars may be a sum of small consequence outside prison walls, but it is of great significance within them: the amount is more than a week’s worth of wages at Red Onion State Prison where Brown is incarcerated.”
This is one important step in recognizing the lived experiences of people behind bars, and their constitutional rights.
From providing testimony to completing custom research projects, the Prison Policy Initiative is available to help work on projects across all stages of the criminal legal system. Learn more about the work our advocacy department does here, and drop us a line if we can help.
