Riverside County: Inmates to be charged for incarceration

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A proposal requiring inmates in county detention facilities to reimburse the county for the cost of their incarceration was unanimously approved this week by the Board of Supervisors. The ordinance requires a final approval from the board before going into effect and county officials said inmates could see charges in the next few months.

“We’d like to see them have it tomorrow,” said Vern Lauritzen, Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone’s chief of staff, about the charges.

“As far as Riverside County is concerned, gone are the days where you can commit a crime and get a free ride,” he said. “It’s also going to cost you to stay at our hotel.”

The ordinance comes as part of Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone’s June proposal to have inmates repay the county for a number of expenses. RECORCE, or Require Every Convict Occupant Reimburse County Expenses, would bill criminals who spend a day or more in jail the $142.42-per day cost of incarceration, Lauritzen.

“This is not a stop the bleeding program and not a revenue generator,” Lauritzen said. “The justice and court systems are very expensive unrecoverable costs and we’re just trying to recoup those costs.”
Lauritzen said if the county is able to recoup from 25 percent of those booked, in a year’s time, there would be the neighboring of about $7 million recovered.

He added that the county is seeing the effects of Governor Jerry Brown’s realignment program, AB 109, which went into effect Oct. 1 and shifted state responsibility for low-level offenders to counties.
But RECORCE would serve as the recouping method to it, Laritzen said.

Lauritzen described how a Riverside County judge recently sentenced a man on drug charges to 14 years in county jail instead of prison due to the program.

“Because of the realignment program, it’s costing us $700,000 to house him,” he said. “That’s just one guy. It’s a significant amount of funding and we are going to attempt to charge the criminal.”

The courts would decide if a convicted criminal would have the funds to repay the county and the jail reimbursement fee would be among the last on the priority list of other fines required to be repaid, Lauritzen said.

Anyone jailed but not convicted of a crime also would not be liable for the cost of their detention, county officials said.

The probation department would be responsible for the collections, which would be deposited into the county’s general fund, Lauritzen said. The department will study the effectiveness of the program after one year.

The ordinance is expected to be formally adopted by the board after a final hearing next week.