HD30 - Offender Reimbursement to Local Jails
Executive Summary: The report of the Corrections Subcommittee study of offender reimbursement to local jails was received by the full Crime Commission at its meeting of December 10, 1991. After careful consideration of the Subcommittee's findings, recommendations and proposed legislation, the Commission deferred the subject for further study. The study, authorized by House Joint Resolution 419 (1991), sponsored by Delegate Richard L. Fisher, sought to determine the feasibility of and the parameters for a program which would require inmates of local jails to bear some or all of the cost of their incarceration. The major issue of feasibility was decided by the Subcommittee on the strength of testimony from a Lieutenant in the Kent County, Michigan jail system. Kent County has had significant success in the collection of both medical costs and ordinary cost of care. Additionally, many other states were found, based upon a nationwide survey, to have ongoing cost reimbursement programs in their jails and prisons. Upon learning of the major financial impact of medical costs on local jails, the Subcommittee expanded the scope of the study to include those costs. Having made the preliminary determination that the idea of offender reimbursement had merit, the Subcommittee then investigated the establishment of parameters for such a program. Based upon a survey sent to every jail in Virginia, the subcommittee arrived at a figure of $35.00 as a representative maximum daily cost of care. Medical cost reimbursement would be based upon the actual cost or upon the daily average cost of medical care per inmate. Additionally, the Subcommittee decided to expand the application of the reimbursement requirement to include Department of Corrections inmates in order that there be no issue of unequal treatment of inmates committed to Corrections but serving time in jail. The program was finally designed by the Subcommittee as a "pilot project" with a proposed expiration date of July I, 1995. Jailers (or Department of Corrections warden) would assess a cost of care or medical cost, or both, on the basis of average or actual cost to the facility. Jailers would, further, assess the ability of an inmate to reimburse the facility and require payment of all or part of his costs based upon his perceived ability to pay. The debt could be enforced via civil judgment; however, the court would have the discretion to negate all or part of the debt based upon the defendant's (in)ability to pay. The full Crime Commission recommended that the issue be studied further because it was not clear that the jailer should be solely designated to determine that a prisoner is able to pay for his stay in jail. |
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