Tuesday, February 11, 2014

CHARGING JAIL INMATES FOR MEALS SOUNDS GOOD BUT WILL NEVER STAND UP IN COURT

The sheriff of Nevada’s Elko County plans to charge jail inmates $6 a day for meals, $10 for each doctor visit and $5 for initial booking into the jail

I just don’t see how this will stand up in the courts. It sounds really good, but you can bet it will end up in court. Sheriff Dingdong is trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip.

What’s the good sheriff going to do with inmates who have no money. He can’t force the wife on welfare or his parents to pay for his meals and seeing the jail doctor. Does that mean they don’t get fed or see the doctor when they are really sick? Of course not!

The sheriff says inmates will be exempt from paying for meals and doctor visits if they work at the jail. But if he’s got more than 20-30 inmates, how and where is he going to find work for all of them to do? They can’t all wash the cop cars or clean the jail hallways. If the inmates are assigned jobs maintaining parks and picking up roadside trash, then each work detail will require a guard in attendance, and the cost for that will far exceed the cost of meals. And since his jail has a capacity of 120 and he expects to save millions with his plan, then he’s got well over 30 inmates to find work for.

I suppose Dingdong could feed them bread and water – it’s legal. But that could lead to an inmate revolt. Ben Clark, the late Sheriff of Riverside County, who was recognized as one of the nation’s most outstanding lawmen, always maintained that the best way to keep the jail population in line is to feed the inmates good meals.

The sheriff even plans to charge the inmates for the initial jail booking process. That’s akin to a hotel charging a guest for the registration process, and no hotel does that!

NEVADA COUNJTY’S PLAN TO CHARGE JAIL INMATES FOR JAIL MEALS DRAWS LAWSUIT THREAT

Associated Press
February 8, 2014

RENO, Nev. – A Northern Nevada county is moving ahead with what may be a first-in-the-nation plan to charge county jail inmates for food and medical care, despite objections from the American Civil Liberties Union that it's cruel and unusual punishment and could lead to a court battle.

The Elko County Commission on Wednesday approved Sheriff Jim Pitts' proposal to charge inmates $6 a day for meals, $10 for each doctor visit and $5 for initial booking into the jail, a move he says will save county taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

"Why should the people of Elko County pay for somebody else's meals in jail?" said Commissioner Grant Gerber, a backer of the plan who thinks the fees should be higher.

Tod Story, executive director of the ACLU Nevada, said that depending on how indigents and others who can't afford the fees are treated, the county could be in for a legal fight over the edict to prisoners that there is no free lunch.

"I was aghast that anyone was even thinking of doing this," he told The Associated Press. "It is unconstitutional — cruel and unusual punishment."

"There is no value in trying to punish them further than the sentence that they are already serving," Story said.

Pitts said it costs about $85 per day per inmate to cover the costs of food, services, housing and utilities at the facility with a capacity of 120 — a total of about $10,000 daily.

"We're not the Hilton," he told the Elko Daily Free Press, which first reported approval of the plan on its website Thursday. "These guys shouldn't have a free ride."

While it's not uncommon in some states for counties to charge inmates a small fee or copayment for medical care, National Sheriff's Association operations director Fred Wilson said he's not aware of any charging for meals.

In Arizona, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, famous for his crackdowns on illegal immigration and tough jail policies, has discussed the idea and is still considering it, but he hasn't instituted it, sheriff's spokesman Christopher Hegstrom said Friday.

"Elko has never been afraid of being first," Gerber told the AP.

Under the new policy, Elko County inmates will be exempt from the fees if they work at the jail or are incarcerated for less than 24 hours. Inmates ultimately found innocent will be reimbursed.

In the coming weeks, the fees will be deducted from an individual inmate's commissary account, where family and friends can deposit money for the inmate to order items such as candy, shampoo and envelopes.

Those with no money would see their account accrue a negative balance, and that balance would remain in the event the inmate was released but later returned to jail for whatever reason.

"It has nothing to do with them getting out of jail, but if they ever come back with any money, that will be applied to what they owe us," Pitts said Friday. "All I'm doing is taking my cut first, before they buy their candies. They need to pay for their food first before they get their dessert."

Pitts said the fees for doctor visits are necessary to help combat an increase in the number of inmates who appear to be faking illnesses.

"Once they hit our jail, they're sick. And then when they get into the cells they talk to each other," Pitts told the commission. "They say, 'Oh, you got aspirin for that? Or you got a prescription for that?' So everyone in that cell ... (claims to have) the same disease."

Story said the fees for food likely are more vulnerable to legal challenge than charging for doctor visits.

"Some jails charge a very minimal copayment for medical services, but it's based entirely on an inmate's ability to pay, or capacity to pay," he said. "But the food is not even a question. Once somebody has entered into the system, they become the responsibility of the state."

No comments: