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| Springfield will vote on charging criminals |
| By Andrea Damewood |
| Published: 04/20/2009 |
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SPRINGFIELD — A night in the Springfield Municipal Jail could wind up costing criminals more than a stay at some motels. With the idea of getting convicted criminals to pay taxpayers back for the time they spend in the city’s soon-to-open jail, the City Council will hear public comment and vote on a proposed $60 per night inmate housing fee today. “I hope the council agrees with this. These people have imposed cost on the citizens of Springfield, and to the best extent we can, we need to recover those costs,” Springfield police Chief Jerry Smith said. Estimates show it will cost a total of $71 a night to house an inmate in the municipal jail; the city currently pays $109 a night for each of the five beds it rents from the Lane County Jail. State law says that jails can collect only up to $60 a night. Only those convicted of their crime can be billed. Smith said he doesn’t expect anywhere near 100 percent of inmates to pay up upon release. The jail’s budget, which won’t be finalized until later this spring, shows the city expects to bring in $18,000 a year from the fee, a small part of an estimated $2.5 million annual budget. “If we receive $18,000, that’s $18,000 of costs that those people incurred on us,” Smith said. “Eighteen thousand dollars is better than zero.” But jail officials in Douglas County, which has charged inmates to stay for more than five years, say asking convicts to fork over the state-mandated maximum may be overly ambitious. The Douglas County Jail used to charge its Circuit Court inmates $60 a night as well, but it was spending more money on collections than it brought in trying to get the fee, jail administrative assistant Mary Anderson said. So two years ago, the country dropped its charges to $20 and has seen far better returns, she said. This year, about $15,000 has been brought in, or about a 20 percent success rate, she said. Inmates faced with a large bill were more likely to abandon it completely, she observed. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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