Pay To Stay” Prison Program A Miserable Failure
In the counties of Butler and Hamilton, Ohio, the sheriff’s departments attempted to collect money from inmates to pay for the cost of their stay at jail. A miserable failure, the program was halted a few weeks ago after it cost taxpayers $69,000 to settle a federal lawsuit. The state audit
Despite this fact, these counties are discussing reviving the program through collecting booking fees. Financial analysts remain dubious. Even in the best case scenarios, the policy may not be lucrative at all; most prisoners that end up in jail have no money.
Lawsuits were the issue that stopped the program in the first place. An Ohio prison nearby originally began charging booking fees at a hundred dollars and an additional $67.77 daily charge for every day held. But federal lawsuits against Hamilton and Butler counties started the end to “pay to stay” programs. The major issue at hand was determining who had to pay the fee.
Ohio law allows a county to charge inmates for room and board, medical and dental treatment, property damage and a onetime booking fee. Prisoners must be billed at the end of their stay, but the key provision of the law is that convicted inmates only could be charged. The District Judge said that it was unconstitutional to take these fines from inmates who were not yet convicted.
Hamilton County was taken to court in 2000 and was ordered to return around one million dollars in prison fees and to pay $150,000 for an educational program for inmates. In 2001, Butler County was also sued. By 2003, the grand total of money that was returned to settle litigation was $63,846 to 2,431 prisoners. Additionally, the county was ordered to pay a $5,000 donation to the Legal aid Society after officials did not add the agreed upon ten percent interest on refund checks.
Although the plan to charge pay to stay fees to prisoners has failed, and has cost taxpayers more money than the program is worth, the Sheriff’s department still looks to extract more money from the jail. Charging booking fees, and taking in out of state prisoners are current considerations.
Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution, a medical debt collection agency. Having trouble collecting money from small claims? collection agencies can help.