Opinion ID: 719610
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The $10,000 Fine Imposed upon Rodriguez.

Text: 38 Rodriguez challenges the district court's imposition of a $10,000 fine to be paid out of the money Rodriguez earns while in prison. Rodriguez relies upon United States Sentencing Guideline § 5E1.2, which provides in pertinent part: 39 (a) The court shall impose a fine in all cases, except where the defendant establishes that he is unable to pay and is not likely to become able to pay any fine. 40 .... 41 (f) If the defendant establishes that (1) he is not able and, even with the use of a reasonable installment schedule, is not likely to become able to pay all or part of the fine required ... or (2) imposition of a fine would unduly burden the defendant's dependents, the court may impose a lesser fine or waive the fine. In these circumstances, the court shall consider alternative sanctions in lieu of all or a portion of the fine, and must still impose a total combined sanction that is punitive. Although any additional sanction not proscribed by the guidelines is permissible, community service is the generally preferable alternative in such instances. 42 Because Rodriguez failed to object to the fine below, we review his claim for plain error. See United States v. Keppler, 2 F.3d 21, 23-24 (2d Cir.1993). 43 We have authorized the assessment against an indigent defendant of a limited fine to be paid out of his likely prison earnings. See United States v. Fermin, 32 F.3d 674, 682 n. 4 (2d Cir.1994) (collecting cases), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1145, 130 L.Ed.2d 1104 (1995). Despite his present inability to pay the fine, we have no reason to believe that Rodriguez will be unable to work while incarcerated. Nor do we think that a fine of $10,000 to be paid over the course of twenty-five years of incarceration is unreasonably high. See United States v. Williams, 996 F.2d 231, 234 (10th Cir.1993) ( 'On average, Federal inmates that work can earn $1,000 a year ....'  (quoting Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Bringing Criminal Debt into Balance: Improving Fine & Restitution Collection 17 (1992))); cf. United States v. Wong, 40 F.3d 1347, 1382-83 (2d Cir.1994) (vacating fines of $250,000 imposed upon indigent defendants), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, ----, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1968, 2568, 116 S.Ct. 190, 131 L.Ed.2d 858, 820, 133 L.Ed.2d 127 (1995). Accordingly, the district court's imposition of the $10,000 fine upon Rodriguez did not constitute plain error. 44