Earlier this week Marshall County Sheriff Matt Hassel told the County Commissioners he’s been looking at ways to financially sustain and expand inmate programs at the jail.
Currently a grant from Community Corrections assists in funding programming at the jail.
The Sheriff brought up the possibility of reestablishing a booking fee for inmates in the jail with the County Commissioners. Hassel said he would like to re-implement the booking fee again as a way to fund programs in the jail. He said the county already has an ordinance in place but a court ruling several years ago stopped the process because they said you couldn’t charge people who aren’t convicted.
Hassel said several other counties are collecting the booking fee once someone is convicted. The fee would be collected once someone is found guilty through fines and costs.
The Sheriff told WTCA the fee listed on the county’s current ordinance is $30. He said Porter County charges $75.00 and he thinks it might be a little high but he also thinks the $30 is a little more. He’s thinking somewhere in between.
The County Commissioners were interested in finding a funding source for inmate programs and asked the County Attorney Jim Clevenger to look at the existing ordinance and revise it to add the booking fee to which would be collections once someone is found guilty and sentenced in court.
