Pay to Stay...in jail.

[Treasure Chest]

http://www.kltv.com/story/14430654/inmates-to-pay-for-the-privilege-of-being-incarcerated

SHARP COUNTY, AR (KAIT) - In an effort to discourage crime and raise funds, the Sharp County Jail is now charging for the privilege of being incarcerated.

In Sharp County if you get in trouble with the law...A. You may go to jail. B. You may have to pay a fine and C. When you get out of jail you may get a bill for your stay.

It's called "Pay for Stay."

Sharp County Sheriff Mark Counts says he got the idea from another sheriff.

"Randolph County Sheriff Gary Tribble showed me. And it's something that I thought would be a great way to bring in revenue."

In March, Sheriff Counts asked for and received the Pay for Stay Ordinance from the Quorum Court. Primarily Counts said this fee will help defray Medical expenses.

Counts, "The average cost of taking someone just to see the doctor or dentist costs a hundred dollars a time and it's really eating into our money set aside for medical expenses. When we have 33 inmates like we do this morning, someone is always getting sick and having to go to the doctor.

How the plan works is that if a person is found guilty and spends time in jail, a fee per day is charged and they are given a bill at the end of their stay. So for a 10 day stay Counts says, "We charge 35 dollars a day to stay in jail then there's a $350 dollar cost added to their restitution."

Cook says it primarily will pay for the increased costs in food and medical expenses. And yes, he admits it will be tough to collect from some people. However the state has a plan to help.

Counts, "If you have somebody that owes you money you can go after their income tax, get it filed with the state. I know that there will be people we will get nothing from but any little bit will help."

Will this act as a deterrent? I asked Counts.

"I never really looked as it as a deterrent part. I looked at is a way to maybe raise some of those costs of those medical expenses that we are incurring. " he said.

"We just need to help out the taxpayers who are paying for all these expenses." He said, " But then again. Hopefully it will also be a deterrent to people not wanting to go to jail."

Counts says he expects to find out soon how much money the jail will get from the March detainees.

[ceyko]

So many other things to fix, this seems great on the surface though. How much will it actually cost to collect and so forth though?

[Broncojohnny]

Sounds great until the sheriff starts filling his jail with people in order to make money.

[stevo]

Idiots. I wonder how long it will take before it is overturned.


Stevo

[Treasure Chest]

Sounds great until the sheriff starts filling his jail with people in order to make money.

I wondered if there would be a cycle of going to jail and being arrested for failure to pay restitution.

[Cannonball996]

this is why we have probation, probation fees are suppose to cover inmate costs at the county jail.
are they ever going to pay it? doubt it, how many excons ever wind up with decent paying jobs, most of them just wind up working minimum wage, earning about 40 bucks a day, yet the county wants to charge them 35 bucks for every day they were inside. lets not forget most of these people have kids and are suppose to be paying child support. it seems like a good idea on paper, but they are probably going to spend more money trying to collect it

[clevelandkid]

They should just start executing more prisoners. Only did 46 nationwide last year, when there were well over 15k murders and ~90k forcible rapes... yet we only saw fit to kill 46 criminals.

[SMEGMA STENCH]

I don't really view a rape as an executable offense. A murder, sure. And the guy should be raped during his prison sentence, sure. But eh, the woman will live. Yeah its traumatizing but we can't kill someone every time somebody gets traumatized. If that's the case then the director of "Fire in the sky" needs to be executed because he traumatized my neighbor's kid with his alien movie.

[GSRGuy94]

This is bullshit. I spent 15 days in jail last year on a bogus conviction, and it's cost me SO much more than the court costs and lawyer fees. When I put in job applications and they check my permanent record, it makes me look like a bad employee. Not even WAL MART gave me a call back. I would be FURIOUS if I was required to have paid an additional $875 after I got out. Probably would have made me more likely to have appealed it, too.

[Snatch Napkin]

This is bullshit. I spent 15 days in jail last year on a bogus conviction, and it's cost me SO much more than the court costs and lawyer fees. When I put in job applications and they check my permanent record, it makes me look like a bad employee. Not even WAL MART gave me a call back. I would be FURIOUS if I was required to have paid an additional $875 after I got out. Probably would have made me more likely to have appealed it, too.

Bogus as in completely fabricated charges or you just don't agree with it?

Has it been proven to be a wrongful incarceration?

[orphan Shelby]

Ha, good luck collecting money from someone that likely wont be making much money legally. Just having a court date for something fucks up getting hired, and it sucks.

[exlude]

I just don't do anything that would land me in prison, a little trick I learned a while back to stay out of prison.

[talisman]

I was for it until Al said:

Sounds great until the sheriff starts filling his jail with people in order to make money.

then I thought, oh yeah, this is a city bureaucracy we're talking about.

[line-em-up]

...

Like AlP said, once they make money from it, you will start going to jail for small traffic violations.

[kingjason]

I don't really view a rape as an executable offense. A murder, sure. And the guy should be raped during his prison sentence, sure. But eh, the woman will live. Yeah its traumatizing but we can't kill someone every time somebody gets traumatized. If that's the case then the director of "Fire in the sky" needs to be executed because he traumatized my neighbor's kid with his alien movie.

How about just cutting it off then. My only problem with execution for rape is that I have seen way more then one that cried wold because they got caught by their parents or the guy didnt call them back the next day. It sucks but it happens, however pedo's and serial rapists should just have it removed.