Several municipalities charge inmates for staying in their jails, and a city attorney and prosecutor in one of those cities said it is probably more common than rare.
It also happens across the country, and a $39-a-day cost like the one in Breckenridge Hills is not unusual.
But in some states, an inmate’s financial condition is considered.
In Kentucky, for example, a person who is sentenced on a misdemeanor or traffic charge can be assessed a fee to defray the cost of housing. But according to state statute, it cannot exceed 25 percent of the prisoner’s gross daily wages or $40 a day — whichever is less.
A “pay to stay†statute in Minnesota allows for sheriffs’ departments to recover the costs of booking and housing inmates upon sentencing them. But it requires the charges be waived if authorities determine the person does not have the ability to pay and/or the payment “would create undue hardship for the person or the person’s immediate family.â€
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Locally, ºüÀêÊÓƵ and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County do not charge daily jail fees, although the county will do so when inmates elect to serve their sentence in two-day increments to accommodate a job or family obligations.
St. John, one of the municipalities that recoups the cost, also charges an hourly arrest fee of around $30 per officer for the time it takes to apprehend someone, along with an hourly fee of around $20 per clerk for booking him or her.
Hardy Menees, the city attorney and prosecutor in St. John, said the city plans to re-examine the breadth of those fees as part of a larger forgiveness program. He could not say how much the city raises annually.
“We believe they are justified, but we’re trying to look at them in regards to doing the right thing, giving people a fresh start in light of Ferguson,†Menees said.
One man, Terrell Johnson, faced a half-dozen municipal charges in St. John over four years, mostly stemming from arguments and disturbances involving the mother of his child.
The most recent incident, in June 2014, led to a charge of assault on a law enforcement officer after Johnson struck an officer who tackled him. According to a police report, Johnson had rushed the officers and refused to back down after they identified themselves as police.
That, along with the other municipal charges through the years, led to a total of $1,854 in jail, arrest and clerical fees, plus fines assessed on the charges.
Edmundson and Normandy also recouped jail costs, although officials in both cities said that is no longer the practice. One woman in Edmundson was charged $440 in jail fees for charges that the prosecutor ultimately dismissed.
Sam Alton, the judge in Edmundson, said he didn’t recall issuing jail fees and did not know why the court stopped except that “my policy as municipal judge is — for those arrested — to have people processed, given a court date and released as soon as possible. It is also not to (compound) the financial problems that may exist for defendants by adding housing fees for municipal violations.â€
In Breckenridge Hills, Wendell Cross was charged in 2011 for walking down the street, yelling, with an open container. The court put him on a $100-a-month payment plan for a $300 fine and said he must make monthly payments or face arrest.
A note in his file warned that upon such an arrest, he wouldn’t be able to see a judge until he could pay his bail in full.
There was no documentation in his case file — including any court summonses or warrants — for three years. Then he was arrested at another municipal court and held for failing to appear on the old Breckenridge Hills charge. He stayed in jail for 20 days, racking up $700 in jail costs.
Court officials declined to comment on his case. Cross could not be reached.