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| Minn. Jail To Charge Inmates For Bed/Board |
| By Pioneer Press |
| Published: 07/29/2002 |
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Three hots and a cot at the Dakota County jail will no longer be free. Beginning Sept. 1, the county will charge offenders $20 a day toward the $90 cost to incarcerate them. The fee will only be charged to sentenced inmates - not people awaiting trial. The county will be among the first in the state to charge inmates in what is dubbed 'pay for stay' - a practice that has become increasingly common nationwide. A state law allowing county jails and workhouses to charge the fee goes into effect Aug. 1. Sherburne County plans to charge $35. 'Not everybody in a jail is indigent. A lot of these folks have jobs,' said Dakota County Chief Deputy David Bellows. 'Why shouldn't they help support the cost they generate for being in our jail?' The new law is an effort to ease the pain of escalating jail costs at a time when governments are struggling to make ends meet without raising taxes. But the fee will only take a nibble out of multimillion-dollar jail costs. Dakota County spends about $6 million a year to run its jail. It conservatively projects that it will collect $64,000 from the boarding fee in the next year. Add in the new office specialist position to collect the fee, and the county anticipates a $29,000 profit. Larry Podany, executive director of the Minnesota Sheriffs Association, said he expects jails statewide to eventually charge the fee. But the main question for counties that are considering the fee is whether the collection expense is worth the anticipated revenue. 'Most of the people can't pay the actual cost (of staying in jail),' Washington County Sheriff Jim Frank said. 'Is it collectible? Are you going to spend $5 trying to collect $1?' Some area jails have charged fees in the past for medical co-pay, work release and booking. Dakota County collected $10 booking fees from about one-third of the inmates, totaling about $30,000 last year. |
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