disorderlyvision
06-15-2009, 02:28 PM
http://www.cjonline.com/news/local/2009-06-15/book_in_charge_at_jail_a_user_fee%E2%80%99
Linda Jackson is irate that every time she is booked into the Shawnee County Jail she is charged a $45 book-in fee.
When she missed a court appearance tied to a book-in fee, a warrant was issued for her arrest, Jackson said.
The book-in fee can generate an ugly cycle of arrests and expenses that some clients, who are poor, just can’t pay, said Scott Gesner, the assistant Shawnee County public defender representing Jackson.
Now Jackson must go to district court on June 23 to face a contempt of court citation tied to the 2008 debt collection case tied to the book-in fee, court records show. If she is found to be in contempt of court for failing to appear at the earlier hearing, she could be jailed or fined.
“I’m refusing to pay it,” Jackson said. “I don’t feel that I need to continue to pay.”
In 2004, Shawnee County commissioners passed the ordinance requiring a jail prisoner to pay the $45 book-in fee if he or she had to be fingerprinted while being booked into the Shawnee County Jail.
“There’s no reason to fingerprint me because they already have my fingerprints,” Jackson said. Jackson, a twice-convicted felon, already had her prints taken during earlier bookings.
Jackson was convicted of two counts of forgery, first in 2006 and again two years later, according to court records.
In each case, she was placed on probation for 18 months.
“You don’t have to fingerprint me for every little thing because I’m a felon,” Jackson said. “It’s just another way for the state to get their little bit of money. Bull crap!”
When Jackson didn’t pay a book-in fee on her 2006 criminal case, Jackson called the clerk of the district court office, where an employee told her to pay $75 to take care of the case, she said.
Paying the book-in fee is difficult, said Jackson, who lives on $650 a month from a Social Security disability check. She has a 2-year-old child living at her home.
County counselor Rich Eckert, doesn’t dispute Jackson’s contention the fee is a way for Shawnee County to get money.
“All taxes and fees are fundraisers,” Eckert said. Taxes and fees are “what we use to fund the cost of government.”
Not all the roughly 14,000 people booked into the Shawnee County Jail each year are required to pay the book-in fee. By statute, only those whose fingerprints must be collected have to pay the fee.
Kansas law requires fingerprinting from a prisoner:
Wanted for a felony
Wanted for an A or B misdemeanor
Wanted for assault
Thought to be a fugitive
Possessing stolen property
Possessing firearms, concealed weapons, burglary tools, high explosives or other items used solely for criminal purposes
Wanted for illegal sexual conduct
Suspected of being an habitual violator or violator of intoxicating liquor law
Eckert authored the Shawnee County book-in fee statute after he saw a Kansas law that allowed county boards of commission to assess the fee. The purpose of the Shawnee County fee was to off-set some expenses the county incurs in defending itself against lawsuits tied to the jail, Eckert said.
A jail is the source of a great deal of litigation, Eckert said, and fees in 2004 were put into the county’s special liability fund, which is used to pay fees for the occasional attorney hired to handle a county case and for court settlements.
But starting in October 2006, Marti Leisinger, county financial administrator, said the funds weren’t put into the liability fund but were put into the general fund.
Those include court costs, costs to test drugs in a case and to place a defendant’s DNA evidence on file, and an application fee for the Board of Indigent Defense Services to help pay for expert services.
Most of the people Gesner represents have little money, are transitory or homeless, are chronically unemployed, and may not get regular mail delivery notifying them of court dates, he said.
“The $45 is just one more thing” for them, Gesner said. A criterion for being represented by a public defender is a lack of money to hire a defense attorney.
Gesner questions why a prisoner must pay the book-in fee upfront when he or she enters jail rather than after being convicted, the same way other case-related fees are handled.
Eckert said most fees are due when the service is rendered. Being booked in “is one of the first things that happens in an encounter at the jail,” Eckert said.
Eckert said the book-in fee is a “user fee,” meaning it is generated only by people booked into jail.
“The good news is it’s a preventable fee,” Eckert said. To avoid paying the fee, don’t get booked into jail, he said.
Gesner recognizes that people booked into jail multiple times aren’t “saints and angels. (But) these are not John Dillingers, these are not bad people. They’re people with struggles and issues.”
BOOK-IN FEES PAID
YEAR ------ TOTAL
2004 ------ $36,110
2005 ------ $98,877
2006 ------ $94,023
2007 ------ $95,850
2008 ------ $88,931
2009 ------ $33,832 (year to date)
Linda Jackson is irate that every time she is booked into the Shawnee County Jail she is charged a $45 book-in fee.
When she missed a court appearance tied to a book-in fee, a warrant was issued for her arrest, Jackson said.
The book-in fee can generate an ugly cycle of arrests and expenses that some clients, who are poor, just can’t pay, said Scott Gesner, the assistant Shawnee County public defender representing Jackson.
Now Jackson must go to district court on June 23 to face a contempt of court citation tied to the 2008 debt collection case tied to the book-in fee, court records show. If she is found to be in contempt of court for failing to appear at the earlier hearing, she could be jailed or fined.
“I’m refusing to pay it,” Jackson said. “I don’t feel that I need to continue to pay.”
In 2004, Shawnee County commissioners passed the ordinance requiring a jail prisoner to pay the $45 book-in fee if he or she had to be fingerprinted while being booked into the Shawnee County Jail.
“There’s no reason to fingerprint me because they already have my fingerprints,” Jackson said. Jackson, a twice-convicted felon, already had her prints taken during earlier bookings.
Jackson was convicted of two counts of forgery, first in 2006 and again two years later, according to court records.
In each case, she was placed on probation for 18 months.
“You don’t have to fingerprint me for every little thing because I’m a felon,” Jackson said. “It’s just another way for the state to get their little bit of money. Bull crap!”
When Jackson didn’t pay a book-in fee on her 2006 criminal case, Jackson called the clerk of the district court office, where an employee told her to pay $75 to take care of the case, she said.
Paying the book-in fee is difficult, said Jackson, who lives on $650 a month from a Social Security disability check. She has a 2-year-old child living at her home.
County counselor Rich Eckert, doesn’t dispute Jackson’s contention the fee is a way for Shawnee County to get money.
“All taxes and fees are fundraisers,” Eckert said. Taxes and fees are “what we use to fund the cost of government.”
Not all the roughly 14,000 people booked into the Shawnee County Jail each year are required to pay the book-in fee. By statute, only those whose fingerprints must be collected have to pay the fee.
Kansas law requires fingerprinting from a prisoner:
Wanted for a felony
Wanted for an A or B misdemeanor
Wanted for assault
Thought to be a fugitive
Possessing stolen property
Possessing firearms, concealed weapons, burglary tools, high explosives or other items used solely for criminal purposes
Wanted for illegal sexual conduct
Suspected of being an habitual violator or violator of intoxicating liquor law
Eckert authored the Shawnee County book-in fee statute after he saw a Kansas law that allowed county boards of commission to assess the fee. The purpose of the Shawnee County fee was to off-set some expenses the county incurs in defending itself against lawsuits tied to the jail, Eckert said.
A jail is the source of a great deal of litigation, Eckert said, and fees in 2004 were put into the county’s special liability fund, which is used to pay fees for the occasional attorney hired to handle a county case and for court settlements.
But starting in October 2006, Marti Leisinger, county financial administrator, said the funds weren’t put into the liability fund but were put into the general fund.
Those include court costs, costs to test drugs in a case and to place a defendant’s DNA evidence on file, and an application fee for the Board of Indigent Defense Services to help pay for expert services.
Most of the people Gesner represents have little money, are transitory or homeless, are chronically unemployed, and may not get regular mail delivery notifying them of court dates, he said.
“The $45 is just one more thing” for them, Gesner said. A criterion for being represented by a public defender is a lack of money to hire a defense attorney.
Gesner questions why a prisoner must pay the book-in fee upfront when he or she enters jail rather than after being convicted, the same way other case-related fees are handled.
Eckert said most fees are due when the service is rendered. Being booked in “is one of the first things that happens in an encounter at the jail,” Eckert said.
Eckert said the book-in fee is a “user fee,” meaning it is generated only by people booked into jail.
“The good news is it’s a preventable fee,” Eckert said. To avoid paying the fee, don’t get booked into jail, he said.
Gesner recognizes that people booked into jail multiple times aren’t “saints and angels. (But) these are not John Dillingers, these are not bad people. They’re people with struggles and issues.”
BOOK-IN FEES PAID
YEAR ------ TOTAL
2004 ------ $36,110
2005 ------ $98,877
2006 ------ $94,023
2007 ------ $95,850
2008 ------ $88,931
2009 ------ $33,832 (year to date)