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“Work Release” Fees |
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Herald & Review - (Decatur, IL) October 17, 1995
Inmate work-release fee lowered in Effingham County.
H&R Effingham Bureau Chief
EFFINGHAM - Effingham County inmates will pay less for the privilege of leaving the jail and going to work. The Effingham County Board voted Monday to reduce the work release fee to $17 per day, down from the $25 charge the board approved just a month ago.
The vote followed a lively debate between Effingham County Public Defender Scott Ealy and Sheriff Ron Meek over the merits of the increased fee.
Meek wanted to keep the fee at $25, saying it allowed the county to recoup the cost of incarcerating prisoners who are gainfully employed while preventing prisoners from abusing the system.
Ealy, on the other hand, argued the increased fee unlawfully prohibits low-income people from taking advantage of the privilege because their jobs don’t pay enough to cover the board-imposed fee.
Ealy noted the take-home pay for a person working seven hours a day at minimum wage is $22.15 - a total of $2.85 less than the amount he would be required to pay daily for the right to receive work release. He said that a person making $5.00 per hour would receive $26.02 per day after taxes - only $1.02 more than he would pay the county.
Ealy contends the higher fee encourages people not to work and then rewards them with an earlier release based on good-time credits.
Ealy used the same argument during an failed attempt to have the fee declared unconstitutional by a circuit judge prior to the new fee structure taking affect Oct. 1.
The General Assembly recently approved legislation allowing county boards to set the rate charged to gainfully employed prisoners. The rate had previously been set by the state at $12 or 50 percent of the defendant’s daily pay, whichever is less.
Ealy had requested that the board decrease the rate and include the 50 percent “safety valve” to assure equal access to the work release privilege. Meek was opposed to the “safety valve” because of the added responsibility he said it would place on his staff.
The board reached a compromise, agreeing to lower the rate to be more in line with the actual costs absorbed by the county. Ealy expressed mixed feelings about the board’s action, saying that without the “safety valve” the rate still will be cost-prohibitive for some prisoners.
[Scott’s Note: To this day, our county work release fee remains unchanged]. |
