This piece was originally published on Cleveland.com on June 28, 2026.
A family dealing with Ohio’s juvenile legal system is already burdened by the emotional and financial toll it can take on all parties.
Justice-involved children and their guardians should not be charged for their imprisonment as well.
Yet Ohio law allows state and county courts to impose these costs through “pay-to-stay” fees.
These fees require children and their families to pay for room and board, medical and dental treatment, and other costs of confinement — often exacerbating the financial strain that contributes to system involvement in the first place.
The exact financial impact on families is impossible to say, because there’s no consistent mechanism for tracking whether, how and how much courts charge.
That inconsistency is demonstrated in a recent Policy Matters Ohio report, which includes the results of public records requests to every county in the state.
About half failed to respond; Ohio law does not require them to keep records of how much they charge and collect from families for their incarcerated children.
Among the counties that did respond, pay-to-stay practices vary widely. Some counties charge nothing, while others routinely assess fees of varying amounts.
The result is “justice by geography,” where families face different financial penalties depending on where they live.
That undermines fairness and transparency, leaving families vulnerable to arbitrary financial punishment.
At the state level, the Ohio Department of Youth Services has collected nearly $350,000 in “child support” payments since 2018 from County Child Support Enforcement Agencies, which collect payments from families of incarcerated children.
The practice takes resources away from households that may already be under strain rather than supporting their stability.
Pay-to-stay fees disproportionately harm the families who are least able to pay.
Many justice-involved youth come from low-income households, and in Ohio, 16.5 percent of children live below the federal poverty line.
For these families, even modest monthly payments can mean choosing between court debt and basic necessities like rent or groceries.
When combined with legal costs and lost wages, pay-to-stay fees deepen financial hardship, making it harder for families to regain stability.
Racial disparities intensify these harms. Ohio’s incarcerated children are disproportionately Black, and Black families are underpaid at the median compared to other racial groups.
In particular, Black women — who are disproportionately likely to be the sole or primary breadwinner in their household — are paid the least among race and gender groups.
The impact of pay-to-stay fees creates several compounding barriers across the board, particularly when legal costs are combined with lost wages.
This financial storm worsens the economic harm that these costs of confinement impose on justice-involved families.
Especially when involvement in the juvenile justice system is the result of poverty, financial support obligations like pay-to-stay fees only exacerbate the problem and undermine families’ pathways to stability and reunification.
Along with state- and county-level analysis, Policy Matters Ohio’s recent report includes the Ohio Public Defender’s Office position on this issue, which explicitly opposes payment models that impose costs on children for the time spent in detention or residential facilities.
To support and strengthen families — especially those in communities disproportionately affected by poverty, family separation and youth incarceration — Ohio must stop using financial penalties, including pay-to-stay fees, and legislators should abolish the practice throughout the state.
Youth pay-to-stay fees have got to go