Jones v. Borchardt, Mn.Ct.App., (1/6/2009).
The Minnesota Court of Appeals has solved (part of) the budget shortfall. The Olmsted County Attorney charged Mr. Jones with three counts of aggravated robbery. The district court set bail at $100,000.00. Eight months later, Mr. Jones, still in jail, pled guilty to all three counts. The Court sentenced him to a seventy-eight (78) month executed term. Seven days later, the Department of Corrections fetched Mr. Jones from the jail to commence serving his sentence. The Sheriff sent Mr. Jones a room and board bill for his entire stay, to the tune of $7,150.00.
It seems that Minnesota has a statute that authorizes this, M.S. 641.12,S. 3(a):
A county board may require that an offender convicted of a crime and confined in the county jail, workhouse, or correctional or work farm pay the cost of the offender’s room, board, clothing, medical, dental, and other correctional services.
Mr. Jones thought that this was piling on. He said that he would pay for the seven days between sentencing and transfer to DOC, but all of that pretrial time the county should eat. That's because it was only on the day of sentencing that Mr. Jones had both been "convicted of a crime" and "confined in the county jail ..." The Court of Appeals rejects this interpretation in favor of a more fiscally aggressive approach. The Sheriff can impose the room and board fee so long as its renters don't get themselves acquitted. If there's no conviction, there's no payday.
So, how does the Sheriff collect its rent? Most any way it likes. It can, apparently, grab canteen money that girlfriend or Mom leaves at the jail. (The Sheriff can't grab DOC canteen moneys, but DOC does a nice enough job of that on its own.) Once the renter checks out, the Sheriff can bring a small claims action. There is no statute of limitations stated in this statute, but, I suppose, more general limitations statutes would apply.
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