Wisconsin Jail’s 2013 Prisoner Fee Revenue Falls $130,000         

by Mark Wilson

A litigation-compelled policy change has cut a Wisconsin County’s booking and pay-to- stay fees by $130,000. However, county officials are quickly recouping the revenue from other detainees.

A 1996 Wisconsin law authorizes the state’s 72 counties to impose booking and pay-to-stay fees against any person who is sentenced to the county jail or probation. Wisc. Stat. § 302.372(2)(a). The law also allows fee collection while the person is incarcerated, § 302.372(5), or by filing a legal action after they are released. § 302.372(6).

Pursuant to the statute, the Brown County Board of Supervisors (Board) passed a resolution authorizing the jail to seize up to 25 percent of any funds deposited into a jail detainee’s trust account as payment of the booking and pay-to-stay fees. It also applied the law to non-sentenced detainees, requiring them to seek reimbursement if the charges were dismissed or if they were later found not guilty.

On January 11, 2011, Lamon Barnes was confined in the Brown County Jail, on drug charges. After booking, he was provided “a Financial Disclosure Statement and an inmate notice stating that he would be charged a lock-up fee of $20.00/day. The notice cited Wis. Stat. § 302.372 and informed him that 25% of the money in his jail account would be collected to cover the fee.”

Brown filed a grievance, arguing that the statute does not apply to pretrial detainees. Jail officials denied his grievance, claiming “that a resolution from the Brown County Board of Supervisors required the jail to collect money from pretrial detainees and that any money collected would be returned if he was not convicted.”

On September 23, 2011, County Counsel informed Barnes “that the $20.00 per day fee is not an ordinance, but a resolution set by the Brown County Board of Supervisors that is adopted into the county budget each year.” Barnes then brought federal suit, alleging that the booking and pay-to-stay fees deprived him of due process of law.

On February 2, 2012, Barnes was convicted and the following month was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Between his initial booking and transfer to prison, Barnes “accumulated $9,160.00 in daily lock-up fees. Brown County Jail collected $325.89 from [his] jail account to cover these fees.”

On March 30, 2013, a federal district court granted jail officials summary judgment on both of Barnes’ due process claims. In doing so, the Court noted that “Defendants have presented evidence that Brown County is in the process of preparing a new ordinance related to its daily lock-up fees that will preclude the jail from collecting daily lock-up fees from pretrial detainees.” See: Barnes v. Brown County, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47613 (ED Wis. 2013).

In 2012, Brown County officials seized more than $204,000 in $20 daily lock-up fees, and over $130,000 in $30 booking fees, for a total of $334,000. Under the new policy, however, officials claim that 2013 revenue from lockup fees is expected to drop to $134,000 and booking fee revenue will fall to $70,000, for a total decrease of $130,000.

The new ordinance will likely cause a steady decrease in the collection of prisoner fees, shifting the burden to pay for housing prisoners to taxpayers, said Brown County Sheriffs Chief Deputy Todd Delain.

To change that, legislation was introduced in June 2013 to allow the collection of the fees from pretrial detainees.

“I think that the legislators recognize the fact that this is important for local jails to be able to collect some of the money,” said Delain, who supports the legislation, which is expected to pass in the House but fail in the Senate.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin “believes that it’s unconstitutional for counties to assess fees on innocent people,” said executive director Chris Ahmuty.

Meanwhile, Brown County officials are looking elsewhere for new revenue sources. “The sheriff’s office was able to overcome [the projected shortage] by being efficient in other areas,” said Delain. These “efficiencies” include housing juvenile offenders from other counties that don’t have the required facilities, and sentencing a growing number of offenders to the electronic monitoring program, or house arrest, at $23 per day. Meanwhile, the county has enlisted a collection agency to recover an estimated $1.2 million in outstanding jail fees.

Source:www.postcrescent.com

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