MERCER CO. PRISON Court decision delays jail fee

The court determined the board doesn't have the authority to assess the fee.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- The Mercer County Prison Board will have to wait at least another month to begin charging county jail inmates $10 a day for room and board.
Atty. James Epstein, Mercer County district attorney and chairman of the prison board, said the plan was to have the common pleas court impose the fee as part of sentencing beginning tomorrow but that won't work.
The court has determined that it doesn't have legal authority to impose that fee, Epstein said.
That means the implementation of the charge will have to wait until at least Nov. 1 while the prison board works out new arrangements, he said.
"We're determined to proceed with the program," Epstein said, adding that the board wants to make sure the program has some method of implementation in place first.
The plan calls for either the county's cost coordinator (who collects fines and assessments levied in criminal court cases) or a collection agency the county already uses to go after debts to collect the fee.
Acknowledging debt
Epstein said the county will ask inmates to sign a note acknowledging the debt when they are first incarcerated and the county will collect the fee when they leave.
Any person cleared of a charge won't have to pay the fee.
There is no way to force an inmate to sign the note for the debt, but Epstein said whether or not it is signed will become part of an institutional cooperation report on the inmate's behavior behind bars.
That report is sent to the judge before an inmate is sentenced, Epstein said.
The county has been working on the plan since spring and it has been delayed periodically as potential problems with implementation were worked out.
The $10-a-day fee covers only about 20 percent of the actual cost of housing an inmate but prison board officials have said they want the fee in place to show inmates there is a cost for their misbehavior.
Requiring them to pay an incarceration fee will help instill a feeling of responsibility for their behavior, officials have said.