Morgan County's attempt to make inmates pay part of the cost of their incarceration ended in failure.
Sheriff Robert Garner said officials there have settled a lawsuit that challenged an ordinance charging all those booked into the county jail a $25 fee.
When officials passed the ordinance in 2001, they predicted it would generate $75,000 a year.
Since it went into effect in April 2002, it has generated about $30,000, Garner said.
The Sheriff's Department had earmarked the funds to help offset the annual $150,000 cost for inmate medical care.
In 2002, a U.S. District Court judge in Ohio ruled that similar booking fees imposed in Hamilton County, Ohio, violated prisoners' constitutional right to due process of law.
And Indiana's State Board of Accounts challenged the county's authority to establish the booking fees. It questioned whether the council could permit the sheriff to control the money generated by the fees.
A month after Morgan County passed its ordinance, neighboring Hendricks County approved a similar one.
Hendricks officials still are collecting the $25 processing fee.
Officials there have collected $67,848, according to a spokeswoman for the Hendricks County auditor.
County Attorney Greg Steuerwald said no lawsuit has been filed against Hendricks County.
Garner said Morgan County will have to refund about $30,000 it had collected.
Bart M. Betteau, a New Albany attorney who filed a class-action lawsuit in federal District Court challenging the processing fee, agreed that the county would have to refund the money.
Garner said individuals will have to apply for refunds with the county clerk.
But Betteau said he has the responsibility to notify inmates and arrange for the refunds.
Morgan is not the first Indiana county to be sued over the booking fee.
After Betteau filed suit, a judge overturned a similar ordinance in Clark County. Betteau also has sued Bartholomew County.